William N. Copley published by Fondazione Prada and The Menil Collection

A lavishly illustrated, 384-page catalogue, William N. Copley, published by Fondazione Prada in association with the Menil Collection, accompanies the exhibition, “William N. Copley: The World According to CPLY." The exhibition is currently open at the Menil Collection through July 24, and then travels to the Fondazione Prada in Milan which opens October 18.

Edited by Germano Celant, the catalogue includes an exhaustive chronology of the artist’s life and career as well as essays by Gwen L. Allen, Celant, Paul B. Franklin, Alison M. Gingeras, Jonathan Griffin, and exhibition co-curator Toby Kamps. The texts explore Copley’s life not only as an artist but also as a dealer, collector, writer, journalist, and publisher. The book includes nearly 600 full-color illustrations and will be distributed worldwide.

William Nelson Copley is currently included in the exhibition Americans in Paris: Artists Working in Postwar France, 1946-1962, on view at the Grey Art Museum, NYU in New York through July 2024. In 2023-24, Copley was the subject of a two-person exhibition See Yourself As Lovers See You: William N. Copley and Dorothy Iannone at the Philara Collection, Düsseldorf, which followed a solo exhibition at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Miami, in 2018-19. In 2016-17, a comprehensive survey of Copley’s work was mounted by The Menil Collection, Houston and the Fondazione Prada, Milan. His work has also been included in landmark group exhibitions including documenta 5 (1972); documenta 7 (1982); Pop Art USA, Oakland Art Museum, California (1963); “Bad” Painting, New Museum, New York (1978); and Westkunst, Museen der Stadt, Cologne (1981). Copley’s work is held in major institutional collections worldwide, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate, London; and Centre Pompidou, Paris, among many others.

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