Lot 68 D

For William Copley, the late 1950s are characterised by widespread travelling that restlessly led him and his wife Noma halfway around the world. In addition to France, Mexico pertained to one of their favourite destinations where they repeatedly took up residence and where Copley worked intensively and intently. Themes of Mexican folk art and inspiration through paintings of the European Old Masters were equally incorporated into his oeuvre as were comic elements. Copley also integrated the painting techniques demonstrated by artist friends such as Roberto Matta and René Magritte in his quest for a distinctive form of expression. His motif vocabulary - to which he would remain permanently loyal - was also formed during this time. '[…] he catalogued everything from life's trivia to its epic struggles with Breughelian equanimity and bemusement. The thematic innovations during his self-imposed exile are myriad. Copley introduced new collage-inspired image layering and interweaving techniques to give the work a new sense of simultaneity and dynamism.' (Toby Kamps, in: William N. Copley, exhib.cat. The Menil Collection, Houston, Fondazione Prada, Milan 2016, p.30). This is evident in the pictorial language of this small work, borrowed from comics, in which the painter makes the thoughts of the portrayed person visible, as it were.