{"title":"Blake Gopnik","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the insightful world of Blake Gopnik, art critic and biographer. Explore his engaging perspectives on art history and culture. A must-read for art enthusiasts and curious minds alike.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"warhol-book-blake-gopnik-9780241003381","title":"Warhol","description":"The definitive biography of one of the most famous and influential artists the world has ever seen  A GUARDIAN, TIMES AND HERALD SCOTLAND BOOK OF THE YEAR   \"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, The Guardian  When 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.  Based on years of archival research and on interviews with hundreds of Warhol's surviving friends, lovers and enemies, Warhol traces  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.  Warhol 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. (Warhol explodes the myth of his asexuality.)  Filled with new insights into the artist's work and personality, Warhol asks: Was he a joke or a genius, a radical or a social climber? As Warhol himself would have answered: Yes.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49571073851665,"sku":"GOR010407224","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51251492913425,"sku":"GOR014207689","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51264189858065,"sku":"GOR010407289","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0241003385.jpg?v=1751323820"},{"product_id":"warhol-book-blake-gopnik-9780141977744","title":"Warhol","description":"\"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, The Guardian  When 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.  Based on years of archival research and on interviews with hundreds of Warhol's surviving friends, lovers and enemies, Warhol traces  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.  Warhol 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. (Warhol explodes the myth of his asexuality.)  Filled with new insights into the artist's work and personality, Warhol asks: Was he a joke or a genius, a radical or a social climber? 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This volume has over 300 of Warhols rarely seen, risque images that highlight the artists fascination with the male form, droll humor, and ironic detachment.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49737104458001,"sku":"NGR9783836574471","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50788680728849,"sku":"CIN3836574470G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51064307876113,"sku":"NIN9783836574471","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/3836574470.jpg?v=1751254012"},{"product_id":"warhol-book-blake-gopnik-9780062298423","title":"Warhol","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe definitive biography of a fascinating and paradoxical figure, one of the most influential artists of his--or any--age  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e To this day, mention the name \"Andy Warhol\" to almost anyone and you'll hear about his famous images of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. But though Pop Art became synonymous with Warhol's name and dominated the public's image of him, his life and work are infinitely more complex and multi-faceted than that.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e In Warhol, esteemed art critic Blake Gopnik takes on Andy Warhol in all his depth and dimensions. \"The meanings of his art depend on the way he lived and who he was,\" as Gopnik writes. \"That's why the details of his biography matter more than for almost any cultural figure,\" from his working-class Pittsburgh upbringing as the child of immigrants to his early career in commercial art to his total immersion in the \"performance\" of being an artist, accompanied by global fame and stardom--and his attempted assassination.  \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe extent and range of Warhol's success, and his deliberate attempts to thwart his biographers, means that it hasn't been easy to put together an accurate or complete image of him. But in this biography, unprecedented in its scope and detail as well as in its access to Warhol's archives, Gopnik brings to life a figure who continues to fascinate because of his contradictions--he was known as sweet and caring to his loved ones but also a coldhearted manipulator; a deep-thinking avant-gardist but also a true lover of schlock and kitsch; a faithful churchgoer but also an eager sinner, skeptic, and cynic.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWide-ranging and immersive, Warhol gives us the most robust and intricate picture to date of a man and an artist who consistently defied easy categorization and whose life and work continue to profoundly affect our culture and society today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49741149176081,"sku":"NGR9780062298423","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50032681812241,"sku":"CIN0062298429G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50343362494737,"sku":"CIN0062298429A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50510045675793,"sku":"GOR013978641","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51258942488849,"sku":"GOR014210271","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51355174273297,"sku":"CIN0062298429VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062298429.jpg?v=1750779163"},{"product_id":"warhol-book-blake-gopnik-9780062298393","title":"Warhol","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe definitive biography of a fascinating and paradoxical figure, one of the most influential artists of his--or any--age  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e To this day, mention the name \"Andy Warhol\" to almost anyone and you'll hear about his famous images of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. But though Pop Art became synonymous with Warhol's name and dominated the public's image of him, his life and work are infinitely more complex and multi-faceted than that.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e In Warhol, esteemed art critic Blake Gopnik takes on Andy Warhol in all his depth and dimensions. \"The meanings of his art depend on the way he lived and who he was,\" as Gopnik writes. \"That's why the details of his biography matter more than for almost any cultural figure,\" from his working-class Pittsburgh upbringing as the child of immigrants to his early career in commercial art to his total immersion in the \"performance\" of being an artist, accompanied by global fame and stardom--and his attempted assassination.  \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe extent and range of Warhol's success, and his deliberate attempts to thwart his biographers, means that it hasn't been easy to put together an accurate or complete image of him. But in this biography, unprecedented in its scope and detail as well as in its access to Warhol's archives, Gopnik brings to life a figure who continues to fascinate because of his contradictions--he was known as sweet and caring to his loved ones but also a coldhearted manipulator; a deep-thinking avant-gardist but also a true lover of schlock and kitsch; a faithful churchgoer but also an eager sinner, skeptic, and cynic.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWide-ranging and immersive, Warhol gives us the most robust and intricate picture to date of a man and an artist who consistently defied easy categorization and whose life and work continue to profoundly affect our culture and society today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50143749144849,"sku":"CIN0062298399G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50446168359185,"sku":"GOR013954937","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51415420862737,"sku":"CIN0062298399VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062298399.jpg?v=1750693549"},{"product_id":"maverick-s-museum-book-blake-gopnik-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 soul    From 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":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51202042134801,"sku":"NGR9780063284036","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51231032869137,"sku":"NIN9780063284036","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51938011447569,"sku":"CIN0063284030G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52599723557137,"sku":"CIN0063284030VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52635660058897,"sku":"GOR014573345","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53352501805329,"sku":"NLS9780063284036","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0063284030.jpg?v=1751100793"},{"product_id":"brutalist-interiors-book-derek-lamberton-9781912018222","title":"Brutalist Interiors","description":"Brutalist Interiors reveals the hitherto overlooked interiors of Brutalist and concrete buildings around the world. 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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":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51798516957457,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51798517022993,"sku":"NGR9780063284043","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53200632054033,"sku":"NIN9780063284043","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53597932552465,"sku":"CIN0063284049VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780063284043.jpg?v=1767867477"},{"product_id":"andy-warhol-book-blake-gopnik-9783754401095","title":"Andy Warhol","description":"Well 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.  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 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.  In 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.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53576820752657,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53576821211409,"sku":"NGR9783754401095","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9783754401095.jpg?v=1779281381"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-blake-gopnik.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}