Blake Gopnik

Blake Gopnik (born 1963) is an American art critic who has lived in New York City since 2011. He previously spent a decade as chief art critic of The Washington Post, prior to which he was an arts editor and critic in Canada. He has a doctorate in art history from Oxford University. He is the author of Warhol, a biography of the American artist Andy Warhol.

Gopnik was educated in French at the Académie Michèle-Provost and then trained as a commercial photographer. He studied at McGill University in Montreal, where he received a bachelor's degree in medieval studies in 1988, specializing in Vulgate and medieval Latin. In 1994, he completed a doctorate at the University of Oxford on realism in Renaissance painting and the philosophy of representation.

Career After receiving his doctorate, Gopnik returned to Canada, where he held minor academic jobs, before switching to journalism. In 1995, he became the editor-in-chief of Insite, an architecture and design magazine, and was later hired as the fine arts editor at The Globe and Mail. In 1998, he became the Globes art critic. From 2000 to 2010, Gopnik worked at The Washington Post as chief art critic. He wrote more than 500 articles about art, ranging from China's terracotta warriors to Andy Warhol's work.

In 2011, Gopnik was hired as the art and design critic at Newsweek magazine and the Daily Beast website. He is also a contributor to The New York Times.

In 2020, he published a comprehensive biography of Andy Warhol, Warhol, through HarperCollins. In 2025, he published a biography of Albert Barnes.

Personal life Gopnik is married to artist Lucy Hogg; they have one son.

Selected books

The Maverick's Museum: Albert Barnes and His American Dream. 2025. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780063284036