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until 22.04. | #4974ARTatBerlin | Galerie Max Hetzler (Goethestraße 2-3) shows from 13. March 2026 the exhibition X-Rated (1972–1974) by the artist Wiliam N. Copley.
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, is pleased to announce the solo exhibition “X-Rated (1972–1974)” featuring paintings and works on paper by William N. Copley. This is the fourth presentation of the artist’s work at the gallery.
Copley came to painting from an unusual direction. He initially aspired to become a writer before turning to painting, and in the late 1940s he briefly co-founded a gallery in Beverly Hills that specialized in Surrealists. The Copley Galleries—run together with his brother-in-law, the artist John Ployardt—brought him into close contact with Surrealists living in exile such as Man Ray, Max Ernst, and Marcel Duchamp, as well as the gallerist Alexander Iolas, who encouraged him to continue his budding artistic career. Around the time the gallery closed, he adopted the artist’s signature CPLY and, shortly before moving to France, presented his first exhibition in 1951 at a bookstore in Los Angeles.
Although he was a generation younger than the Surrealists, Copley’s work is deeply shaped by the movement on both a conceptual and personal level. His distinctive black outlines and self-taught figurative style may recall comics and Pop Art, yet Copley approached painting with a literary sensibility. He employed narrative strategies that both embodied Surrealist principles and drove the structural development of his compositions. Like many Surrealists, Copley regarded humor, psychology, and eroticism as fundamental to his creative process. His engagement with explicitly sexual themes, however, went far beyond the playful eroticism of his contemporaries.
The exhibition presents works from Copley’s extensive “X-Rated” series, produced between 1972 and 1975 and first shown in 1974 in an exhibition of the same name at the New York Cultural Center. Drawing on erotic imagery and ritualized motifs from adult magazines, this body of work seeks, in the artist’s words, “to break through the barrier of pornography and move into the realm of joy.”¹ In a decade when the sale of hardcore pornography in the United States was still illegal, Copley purchased such magazines under the counter and used them as inspiration for imaginative figurative and narrative paintings exploring eroticism, sexual politics, and the pursuit of pleasure. In the “X-Rated” paintings, the artist succeeds in conveying a wide range of moods: some, such as The Seven Year Itch (1973), are tender; others, including Viridiana (1973), are exuberant; and almost all are openly humorous. Copley emphasized the openness of sexual expression by remarking: “That’s what makes sex so exciting: since nobody really understands it, the possibilities for originality are endless.”²
Copley typically produced two preliminary drawings before beginning a painting: an initial small-scale study followed by a larger version in which he refined the composition, made alterations, and intensified the pictorial dynamics of the work. The resulting paintings are marked by a deliberately unconventional style, with figures rendered loosely rather than in great detail. The exhibition makes this process visible through several pairs of preparatory drawings and finished paintings, including Calcutta, 1973, and its counterpart Untitled, 1973.
Scenes of copulation and orgies stand out against bright, colorful backgrounds animated by bold geometric patterns. As critic James R. Mellow noted, they appear almost “too artful to be lustful, let alone lewd.”³ Both the design of these backgrounds and the depiction of the distorted, intertwined bodies—with their thin limbs and schematic outlines—have repeatedly led critics to draw a connection between Copley and Henri Matisse. Yet while depictions of the nude and sexual motifs in art history have traditionally relied on suggestion and idealization, Copley presents the sexual act directly, leaving nothing to the imagination.
With titles borrowed from Hollywood films such as Les Quatre Cent Coups, The Exorcist, or Tobacco Road, Copley softened the shock of pornographic imagery through comic playfulness and a flair for pop culture. The films reveal a surrealist dissonance and rarely correspond explicitly with the content of the pictures, yet the titles trigger a cascade of associations for the viewer. The title of the series itself also draws on film-industry terminology: until the 1990s in the United States, the term “X-Rated” was used for films suitable only for adults. Despite warnings that some visitors might find the subject matter offensive, the 1974 exhibition at the Cultural Center—curated by the newly appointed and highly progressive director Mario Amaya—received remarkably positive responses. The writer Peter Schjeldahl of Art in America praised the presentation as an “altogether splendid exhibition,” noting that it marked “a most welcome development in Copley’s work.”
The “X-Rated” series represents a unique chapter in Copley’s oeuvre, consciously setting itself apart from the dominant currents of the art scene in the early 1970s. Even in today’s uncensored and image-saturated world, Copley’s suggestive paintings still retain a subversive force. By merging art and eroticism, Copley challenged conservative norms and rejected the notion of artistic neutrality. He freed himself from moralizing constraints and instead embraced directness and humor.
William N. Copley (1919–1996), also known as CPLY, lived and worked in Paris, New York, and Roxbury, Connecticut, among other places. His works have been exhibited in renowned institutions worldwide, including the Philara Collection, Düsseldorf (2023); the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2018); the Menil Collection, Houston, and the Fondazione Prada, Milan (2016–2017); Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, traveling to the Max Ernst Museum Brühl, Hannover (2012); Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht (2001); L.A.C. Lieu d’Art Contemporain, Sigean; Kunstmuseum Herning; Forum of Contemporary Art, St. Louis (all 1999); Ulmer Museum, Ulm (1997); Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover (1995); the New Museum, New York (1986); Künstlerwerkstatt Lothringerstraße, Munich (1981); Kunsthalle Bern, traveling to the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (1980); New York Cultural Center (1974); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1966); and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (1961), among others.
Copley’s work is held in major public collections worldwide, including the Art Institute of Chicago; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Denver Art Museum; Fondazione Prada, Milan; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Menil Collection, Houston; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Power Institute, Sydney; Städel Museum, Frankfurt; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others.
Opening: Friday, 13. March 2026, 6:00 – 8:00 pm.
Exhibition dates: Friday, 13. March 2026 – Wednesday, 22. April 2026
To the Gallery
Image Caption: Robert Elfgen. Tamara IX, 2025 Metallic spray paint, wood stain, ink on wood, artist frame 125.5 × 190 × 4 cm | 49 3/8 × 74 7/8 × 1 5/8 inches
Exhibition William N. Copley – Galerie Max Hetzler | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Exhibition Galleries Berlin | ART at Berlin
