The Maverick's Museum
Albert Barnes and His American Dream
-
- USD 18.99
-
- USD 18.99
Descripción editorial
A fascinating art collector 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 portrait of America’s first great collector of modern art, Albert Coombs Barnes. Raised in a Gilded Age 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 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, pioneering his own form of art education by 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.
But who was the man behind one of the world’s most stunning private collections of modern art?
Progressive Era Idealist: Discover the story of a man raised in a slum who made a fortune from an antiseptic and dedicated his life to battling the elite, believing art was a tool for social and educational reform.Pioneering Art Collector: Explore the creation of one of the world’s greatest modern art collections, including 181 Renoirs and 69 Cézannes, and Barnes’s groundbreaking championship of African art.A Combative Eccentric: Meet the ‘terrible-tempered’ visionary whose ferocious personality earned him more enemies than allies, from Philadelphia’s high society to the Parisian art world.Education and Democracy: Learn about his unique friendship with the philosopher John Dewey and their shared mission to create the Barnes Foundation as a radical experiment in democratic art education.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Biographer Gopnik (Warhol) draws on extensive research for this textured and energetic biography of Albert Barnes, the collector who founded the Barnes Foundation museum and helped reshape notions of American art. Born into a poor family in late-19th-century Pennsylvania, Barnes grew up with a "ferocious... rejection of elites and elitism." After earning a medical degree, he began a career in the growing pharmaceuticals field, co-developing the antiseptic on which he built his fortune and implementing such progressive reforms as offering educational opportunities to employees. He used his fortune to buy art that became the basis for the Barnes Foundation museum, seeking out Renoirs and Cezannes (which, while "safe" by European standards, were still considered avant-garde in the U.S.), North American ironwork, and African sculpture. Gopnik emphasizes how Barnes championed African art not as "the product of some exotic Other" but high art in its own right. In so doing, he helped to make fine art a front in the fight for egalitarianism and the eradication of "old hierarchical ways." Gopnik remains clear-eyed, however, about Barnes's less than savory attributes, including a tendency to attack art world rivals, occasionally in the kind of racist or antisemitic language that he purported to despise. The result is a vibrant and comprehensive portrait of an influential figure in American art history.
