Alcopley

Alfred Lewin Copley, working under the pseudonym “L. Alcopley”, was one of the first members of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism. Alcopley helped to found The Club in 1949, an intellectual meeting place for artists in the New York School. Although born in Dresden, Germany, he worked in Paris, London, and New York.
Before his artistic career, however, Alcopley worked as a scientist. Most notably, he established the field of hemorheology - the study of blood flow. His interest in this field may have influenced his use of drip painting and free-flowing brushstrokes, evident in Untitled, 1953.
On May 21, 1951, Alcopley participated in the historical exhibition, “Ninth Street Show”, which was the first time the New York School artists, many of which were second-generation Abstract Expressionists, showed their work together in a commerical gallery space. “Ninth Street Show” was a major launching point, not only for Alcopley, but for his now-famous contemporaries like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Franz Kline.

Alcopley’s works are included in several renown museums, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.