{"title":"Books by Blake Gopnik","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780063284036","title":"The Maverick's Museum","description":"A fascinating biography of the philanthropist Albert Barnes, whose pioneering collection of modern art was meant to transform America’s soulFrom prominent critic and biographer Blake Gopnik comes a compelling new art collector biography 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—181 Renoirs, 69 Cézannes, 59 Matisses, 46 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 the Progressive Era. 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 through the renowned Barnes Foundation.   This definitive biography goes beyond the collection to reveal the complex, controversial man who changed American art.   A Gilded Age Rags-to-Riches Story: Follow Albert C. Barnes from a Philadelphia slum to a medical degree and a fortune built on a revolutionary antiseptic, driven by a ferocious ambition to upend the established order.   The World’s Greatest Modern Art Collection: Discover the story behind the staggering collection—including 181 Renoirs, 69 Cézannes, and 59 Matisses—and the radical vision to make it a tool for educating working-class Americans, not the elite.   A Fierce and Contradictory Figure: Uncover the portrait of one of America’s great eccentrics—a ruthless businessman, a fierce advocate for social justice, and a loyal friend whose terrible temper became legendary.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685930377589,"sku":"9780063284043","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":56222531453301,"sku":"9780063284036","price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780063284043.jpg?v=1792599177"},{"product_id":"9780141977744","title":"Warhol","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Superb...Gopnik persuasively assembles his case over the course of this mesmerising book, which is as much art history and philosophy as it is biography\" Kathryn Hughes, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen critics attacked Andy Warhol's Marilyn paintings as shallow, the  Pop artist was happy to present himself as shallower still: He claimed  that he silkscreened to avoid the hard work of painting, although he was  actually a meticulous workaholic; in interviews he presented himself as  a silly naïf when in private he was the canniest of sophisticates.  Blake Gopnik's definitive biography digs deep into the contradictions  and radical genius that led Andy Warhol to revolutionise our cultural  world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBased on years of archival research and on interviews with hundreds of Warhol's surviving friends, lovers and enemies, \u003ci\u003eWarhol \u003c\/i\u003etraces  the artist's path from his origins as the impoverished son of Eastern  European immigrants in 1930s Pittsburgh, through his early success as a  commercial illustrator and his groundbreaking pivot into fine art, to  the society portraiture and popular celebrity of the '70s and '80s, as  he reflected and responded to the changing dynamics of commerce and  culture.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWarhol sought out all the most glamorous figures of his  times - Susan Sontag, Mick Jagger, the Barons de Rothschild - despite  being burdened with an almost crippling shyness. Behind the public  glitter of the artist's Factory, with its superstars, drag queens and  socialites, there was a man who lived with his mother for much of his  life and guarded the privacy of his home. He overcame the vicious  homophobia of his youth to become a symbol of gay achievement, while  always seeking the pleasures of traditional romance and coupledom. (\u003ci\u003eWarhol\u003c\/i\u003e explodes the myth of his asexuality.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFilled with new insights into the artist's work and personality, \u003ci\u003eWarhol\u003c\/i\u003e asks: Was he a joke or a genius, a radical or a social climber? As Warhol himself would have answered: Yes.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56225165279605,"sku":"9780141977744","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141977744_113b329c-e73f-41bc-920a-ea4ea0073dae.jpg?v=1786011725"},{"product_id":"9781912018222","title":"Brutalist Interiors","description":"Brutalist Interiors reveals the hitherto overlooked interiors of Brutalist and concrete buildings around the world. The book combines photography of select interiors with essays by leading architectural writers and academics on subjects ranging from childhood inside Montreal's Habitat 67 to the interiors of Denys Lasdun in Ghana, Tadao Ando in Japan, and the use of Brutalist techniques in contemporary design","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56309107556725,"sku":"9781912018222","price":35.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781912018222_b933b0ab-ff42-4e47-a26c-4963ed27c78b.jpg?v=1786030615"},{"product_id":"andy-warhol-2","title":"Andy Warhol","description":"\u003cp\u003eWell before Andy Warhol’s rise to the pinnacle of Pop Art, he created and exhibited seductive drawings celebrating male beauty. Andy Warhol Love, Sex, \u0026amp; Desire: Drawings 1950–1962 features over three hundred drawings rendered primarily in ink on paper portraying young men, many of them nude, some sexually charged, and occasionally adorned with whimsical black hearts and delightful embellishments. They lounge or preen, proud of or even bored by their beauty, while the artist sketches them, rapt. They rarely engage with their keen observer, and likewise Warhol’s focus is on their form, their erotic qualities, and unbridled sexuality. If his subjects are content to revel in their attractiveness, so too is Warhol. His confident hand illustrates a multitude of colorful characters, yet also reveals much about this enigmatic artist.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWarhol was already a booming commercial illustrator when he exhibited studies from this body of work at the Bodley Gallery on New York’s Upper East Side in 1956. He mistakenly saw these illustrations as his way of breaking into the New York art scene, underestimating the pervading homophobia of the time. While he never saw through his plan to publish the drawings as a monograph, he did produce more than a thousand elegant, seemingly effortless drawings from life. This volume brings his project to fruition by gathering his most striking images, published in a comprehensive book and chosen by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Edited and featuring an introduction by the Foundation’s Michael Dayton Hermann, and essays by Warhol biographer Blake Gopnik and art critic Drew Zeiba. The inclusion of poems by James Baldwin, Thom Gunn, Harold Norse, Essex Hemphill and Allen Ginsberg create moments of introspection, which expand on the themes and moods present in the drawings.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn style, the drawings evoke the sketches of Jean Cocteau and even Matisse: highly distilled and sure of line, yet loose. The sly voyeurism, meanwhile, is entirely Warhol’s own, and even the most risqué drawings contain a kind of droll humor—a sense of ironic detachment—that would become a Warhol trademark.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57613178306933,"sku":"9783754401095","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9783754401095.jpg?v=1790607811"},{"product_id":"alexander-aizenshtat","title":"Alexander Aizenshtat","description":"\u003cb\u003eThis landmark publication unveils Aizenshtat as an important chronicler of Jewish life, one of the most compelling and previously overlooked voices in contemporary painting. Bringing together over one hundred works, this volume offers the first comprehensive introduction to his practice and positions the book as a major artistic discovery.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAizenshtat has developed what he calls “metaphysical expressionism”—a painterly language defined by vivid color, symbolic intensity, and a sustained engagement with the fundamental questions of faith, exile, and belonging. His monumental compositions move between the allegorical and the existential, rendering the complexities of contemporary life through a visual language that is at once deeply personal and universally resonant. Built around the enduring structures of human connection, the paintings function as fables of modern life, addressing its inequities, tensions, and fleeting moments of grace. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHistorical consciousness is central to the work. Among the most significant works included in this volume is a series addressing Aktion T4, the Nazi program that targeted individuals with physical and mental disabilities—paintings that confront one of the most devastating chapters of modern history with unflinching clarity.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57679970861429,"sku":"9780847877867","price":60.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780847877867.jpg?v=1792422776"},{"product_id":"andy-warhol-3","title":"Andy Warhol","description":"\u003cp\u003eWell before Andy Warhol’s rise to the pinnacle of Pop Art, he created and exhibited seductive drawings celebrating male beauty. \u003cem\u003eAndy Warhol Love, Sex, \u0026amp; Desire: Drawings 1950-1962\u003c\/em\u003e features over \u003cstrong\u003ethree hundred drawings\u003c\/strong\u003e rendered primarily in ink on paper portraying young men, many of them nude, some sexually charged, and occasionally adorned with whimsical black hearts and delightful embellishments. They lounge or preen, proud of or even bored by their beauty, while the artist sketches them, rapt. They rarely engage with their keen observer, and likewise Warhol’s focus is on \u003cstrong\u003etheir form, their erotic qualities, and unbridled sexuality\u003c\/strong\u003e. If his subjects are content to revel in their attractiveness, so too is Warhol. His confident hand illustrates a multitude of colorful characters, yet also reveals much about this \u003cstrong\u003eenigmatic artist\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Warhol was already a booming commercial illustrator when he exhibited studies from this body of work at the Bodley Gallery on New York’s Upper East Side in 1956. He mistakenly saw these illustrations as his way of breaking into the New York art scene, underestimating the pervading homophobia of the time. While he never saw through his plan to publish the drawings as a monograph, he did produce more than a thousand elegant, seemingly effortless drawings from life. This volume \u003cstrong\u003efinally brings his project to fruition\u003c\/strong\u003e by gathering his most striking images, \u003cstrong\u003epublished here for the first time \u003c\/strong\u003ein a comprehensive book and chosen by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Edited and featuring an introduction by the Foundation’s \u003cstrong\u003eMichael Dayton Hermann\u003c\/strong\u003e, and essays by Warhol biographer \u003cstrong\u003eBlake Gopnik\u003c\/strong\u003e and art critic \u003cstrong\u003eDrew Zeiba\u003c\/strong\u003e. 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