William N. Copley
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Installation view of Confiserie CPLY, Confiserie Schiesser, Basel, 2013
Confiserie CPLY
June 1 - 15, 2013
Open: Monday through Saturday, 9:00 am - 1:00 am, daily
Confiserie Schiesser
Markplatz 19
Basel, Switzerland
(Basel, CH) – New York-born painter, writer, gallerist, collector, publisher and art entrepreneur William N. Copley (1919-1996) began his career in the arts as a dealer of Surrealist and Dada titans Rene Magritte, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Joseph Cornell and Yves Tanguy. Such was the impact of their work upon the imagination of this American eccentric – who dubbed himself CPLY – that he began to paint on his own in the 1950s after shuttering his Los Angeles gallery. Mixing eroticism, symbolism, whimsy and darkness, CPLY earned the enthusiastic encouragement of the very artists whose works his business had represented. By the early 1970s, he developed a signature style in which everyday objects or (more often and now legendarily) sexually explicit couplings were presented against lushly patterned backgrounds. In these paintings, Copley emerges as a mediator between European postwar art and American Pop Art, and a bemused if troubled guide through the charged sexual, psychological and emotional terra incognita he once referred to as “the tragedy of man and woman.”
In tribute to this 20th century original, Venus Over Manhattan gallery will devote its Spring 2013 program to William Copley with two presentations – Gang Bust, an exhibition in New York City, and Confiserie CPLY, a site-specific art and candy project at the historic Confiserie Schiesser chocolate shop in Basel, Switzerland.
IN BASEL
From June 1st through June 15th, and in conjunction with the annual Art Basel fair in Switzerland, Venus will present the second part of its homage to William Copley with Confiserie CPLY. This project is a collaboration between the gallery and the historic Confiserie Schiesser, the oldest café and chocolate shop in Basel, Switzerland, founded in 1870 and renowned across Europe for its approach to candy making as fine art.
For two weeks, the Confiserie will offer customers to its street level shop a special limited edition product: hand made chocolates decorated in relief with figures from CPLY’s painting Villa Rosa (1959). In the tea salon located on the second of third levels of its landmark building across from the Drei König Hotel (Grand Hotel Les Trois Rois), Confiserie Schiesser also will serve kirsch with CPLY chocolates alongside its regular menu items, in spaces decorated with custom-made CPLY wallpaper derived from the wallpaper pattern key a CPLY canvas. In these rooms Venus will present eight major paintings by the artist.
Confiserie CPLY coincides with the 40th anniversary of Art Basel’s first special single-country exhibitions in 1973 – a show devoted to American art.
For further information about the exhibition and availability, please contact the gallery at info@venusovermanhattan.com
For all press inquiries related to the exhibition, please email press@venusovermanhattan.com
William N. Copley
Untitled, 1956
acrylic on canvas
19 1/4 x 28 1/4 in
49.5 x 72.4 cm
William N. Copley
Untitled, 1964
oil on linen
29 x 24 in
73.7 x 61 cm
William N. Copley
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 1972-1973
acrylic on linen
45 x 59 1/4 in
114.3 x 150.5 cm
William N. Copley
Free Samples, 1981
acrylic on canvas
42 x 25 in
106.7 x 63.5 cm
William N. Copley
Under the Law, 1981
acrylic on linen
64 x 51 in
162.6 x 129.5 cm
William N. Copley
Untitled (The Card Players), 1981
acrylic on linen
62 x 52 in
162.6 x 132.1 cm
William N. Copley
Untitled (Folding Screen), 1982
acrylic on canvas in three part
71 1/2 x 24 in each
181.6 x 61 cm each
William N. Copley
Untitled (Folding Screen),
acrylic on canvas in 3 parts
71 1/2 x 24 in each
181.6 x 61 cm
William N. Copley
The Accident, 1983
acrylic on canvas
48 x 72 in
121.9 x 180.3 cm
William N. Copley
Candlemass, 1985
oil and buttons on canvas
64 x 52 in
162.6 x 132.1 cm
William N. Copley
Trust Lust, 1988
acrylic on canvas
38 x 51 in
96.5 x 129.5 cm
William N. Copley
Sin, 1990
acrylic on linen
60 x 48 in
152.4 x 121.9 cm
William N. Copley
Music Lesson, 1993
acrylic on canvas
60 x 48 in
152.4 x 121.9 cm
William N. Copley
An Extra Marital Affair, 1994
acrylic on canvas
40 x 50 in
101.5 x 127 cm
William N. Copley
The Champ, 1977-2012
mirrored acrylic
67 1/2 x 52 in
171.5 x 132.1 cm
