William Copley

William Nelson Copley (1919, 1996) was an American artist and art collector closely associated with Surrealism, known for his irreverent, sexually charged, and humorous paintings that blended the absurdist spirit of Surrealism with American popular culture. Self-taught as a painter, he developed a distinctive naive yet sophisticated style featuring cartoonish figures and bold, flat colors to explore themes of desire, fantasy, and the American psyche. He was also a significant patron and gallerist who championed artists like René Magritte and Man Ray, and founded the CPMAS Foundation to support avant-garde art.