William N. Copley - New Now New York Tuesday, March 12, 2024 | Phillips

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  • In William N. Copley’s L’amour c’est ce qu’on fait, 1991, an animated style shockingly uncovers an erotic subject in the artist’s trademark mix of provocative yet sweet humor. From a lively Parisian cafe scene on the sidewalk, the viewers eyes are drawn up across the candy-colored striped awning to a brick façade with open windows as couples are revealed, intertwined in intimate moments. Men dressed in identical green suits and bowler hats sit and chat over a meal alongside women with uniform blonde haircuts. These generically civilized figures are then found upstairs in a private act, emphasizing the parallel registers depicting contemporaneous points. The large-scale canvas heightens the simultaneous existence of these public and private scenes. Recalling works from Copley’s Parisian period four decades earlier, which shared the roughly four-by-five-foot dimensions, the size allows for private tableaux to sit in the same composition as a full street scene. 

     

    Two decades before this work was painted, Copley’s paintings tended towards more overtly erotic subjects, drawing visual material from pornographic magazines. Some of his earlier, more whimsical compositions had far less explicitly sexual imagery, and were inspired by classic Americana, the post-war European social scene and the work of Surrealist artists, with whom he had personal relationships as a dealer and collector. 

     

    William N. Copley, Monsieur Verdou, 1973, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Image: © Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY, Artwork: © 2024 William Copley / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

    L’amour c’est ce qu’on fait integrates these two extremes, reflecting the provocative nature of Copley’s erotic imagery while illustrating a nostalgic depiction of midcentury social life. He simultaneously shows a lively street cafe with all its mingling patrons, and intimate sexual vignettes which the artist remained fixated on depicting throughout his career. Indeed, the combination perfectly illustrates Copley’s interest in portraying human connection in all its forms, described by Germano Celant as typical of the final decade of the artist’s career before his death in 1996: “Desire was not dead... but underwent a multiplication, opening up to more individualities... So Copley’s final production was aimed at a socialization of sexual and erotic themes... Introspective realization was no longer enough, now it took the social into account.” i

     

    This focus on the human dimensions of eroticism, rather than solely vulgar or risqué provocation, is underscored by the text running along the awning, which forms the painting’s title. Roughly translating to “love is what we do when we make love,” when read as a caption, it addresses both the sexual and emotional aspects of amour. 

     

    Copley’s linguistic playfulness using homophones and phrases that run into each other, reflects the artist’s irreverent attitude towards depicting traditionally vulgar or risqué subjects. This tool of language reflects the very origins of Copley’s artistic practice: “I really started painting as what I thought was an exercise to writing,” a connection only deepened in works such as L’amour c’est ce qu’on fait that include the written word. Indeed, the visual and linguistic styles play off one another to heighten the irony, irreverence, and humor on full display.ii

     

    The amalgamation of scenes in L’amour c’est ce qu’on fait is an excellent example of the final stage of Copley’s artistic career, incorporating the subjects, styles and influences from several eras of his work, into a masterful summation of his visual and thematic talents.

     

     Germano Celant, “Poetry + Painting,” in William N. Copley, exh. cat., Fondazione Prada, Milan, 2016, p. 22.

    ii Ibid, p. 13.

    • Provenance

      Nolan/Eckman Gallery, New York
      Galerie Onrust, Amsterdam
      Galerie Klaus Gerrit Friese, Berlin
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

    • Exhibited

      New York, The New Museum, A Labor of Love, January 20–April 14, 1996, p. 9 (illustrated)
      Ulm, Germany, Ulmer Museum, William N. Copley: True Confessions, April 27–June 15, 1997, no. 52, p. 85 (illustrated)
      Amsterdam, Galerie Onrust, William N. Copley, January 22–February 26, 2005
      Amsterdam, SHOWROOM, William N. Copley: Paintings from 1960-1994, September 10–October 13, 2015

    • Artist Biography

      William N. Copley

      American • 1919 - 1996

      William N. Copley, also known by the name of CPLY, drew attention to himself in the late 1940s by fusing elements of Surrealism and Pop Art.  Copley focused on symbols of American pop culture—staples of American society including pin-up girls, cowboys and the flag—and transformed them into more accessible, universal icons that could appeal to both men and women without bias.

      In the '70s, Copley distinguished himself from the rest of the Surrealists by attempting to represent the tumultuous relationship between erotic and pornographic symbolism. He celebrated the female body, sexual freedom and, most of all, the promiscuity of America.

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L'amour c'est ce qu'on fait

acrylic on canvas
52 1/2 x 64 1/2 in. (133.4 x 163.8 cm)
Painted in 1993.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$100,000 - 150,000 

Contact Specialist

Avery Semjen
Associate Specialist, Head of New Now Sale
T +1 212 940 1207
asemjen@phillips.com
 

New Now

New York Auction 12 March 2024