Blake Gopnik — The Maverick's Museum

Watch author Blake Gopnik's book talk and reading at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.

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From prominent critic and biographer Blake Gopnik comes a compelling new portrait of America's first great collector of modern art, Albert Coombs Barnes. Raised in a Philadelphia slum shortly after the Civil War, Barnes rose to earn a medical degree and then made a fortune from a pioneering antiseptic treatment for newborns. Never losing sight of the working-class neighbors of his youth, Barnes became a ruthless advocate for their rights and needs. His vast art collection--180 Renoirs, 67 Cézannes, 59 Matisses, 45 Picassos--was dedicated to enriching their cultural lives. A miner was more likely to get access than a mine owner.

Gopnik's meticulous research reveals Barnes as a fierce advocate for the egalitarian ideals of his era's progressive movement. But while his friends in the movement worked to reshape American society, Barnes wanted to transform the nation's aesthetic life, taking art out of the hands of the elite and making it available to the average American.

The Maverick's Museum offers a vivid picture of one of America's great eccentrics. The sheer ferocity of Barnes's democratic ambitions left him with more enemies than allies among people of all classes, but for a circle of intimates, he was a model of intelligence, generosity, and loyalty. In this compelling portrait, Gopnik reveals a life shaped by contradictions, one that left a lasting impact.

Blake Gopnik, one of North America's leading art critics, is the author of the comprehensive biography Warhol. He has served as the art and design critic at Newsweek, and as the chief art critic at the Washington Post and Canada's the Globe and Mail. In 2017, he was a Cullman Center fellow in residence at the New York Public Library, and in 2015 he held a fellowship at the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the City University of New York. He has a PhD in art history from Oxford University and is a regular contributor to the New York Times.

Gopnik is in conversation with Robin Givhan. Givhan is Washington Post senior critic-at-large writing about politics, race and the arts. Previously, she covered the fashion industry as a business, as a cultural institution and as pure pleasure. She is the 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner for criticism and author of “The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History.” In addition to The Post, Givhan has worked at Newsweek/Daily Beast, Vogue magazine and the Detroit Free Press. During her most recent tenure at The Post, in addition to fashion, Givhan covered Michelle Obama during the first year of the administration.

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Founded by Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade in 1984, Politics and Prose Bookstore is Washington, D.C.'s premier independent bookstore and cultural hub, a gathering place for people interested in reading and discussing books. Politics and Prose offers superior service, unusual book choices, and a haven for book lovers in the store and online.

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