Blake Gopnik

Gopnik was born in Philadelphia, in 1963, to Irwin and Myrna Gopnik, with whom he moved to Montreal as a child.^{[citation needed]} He and his five siblings—Berkeley psychologist Alison, writer Adam, oceanographer Morgan, archeologist Hilary, and Melissa Gopnik, who manages a nonprofit—grew up in Moshe Safdie's brutalist housing community, Habitat 67.^[5][6]

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 of Arts with honors in medieval studies in 1988,^[7] specializing in Vulgate and medieval Latin.^{[citation needed]} In 1994, he completed a doctorate at the University of Oxford on realism in Renaissance painting and the philosophy of representation.^[8][9]

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.^[10] In 1998, he became the Globe's 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.^{[citation needed]}

In 2011, Gopnik was hired as the art and design critic at Newsweek magazine and the Daily Beast website.^[11] He is also a contributor to The New York Times.^[12][13]

In 2020, he published a comprehensive biography of Andy Warhol, Warhol, through HarperCollins.^[14][15] In 2025, he published a biography of Albert Barnes.^[16]

Gopnik is married to artist Lucy Hogg;^[17] they have one son.^{[citation needed]}

• Warhol. New York: Ecco. 2020. ISBN 978-0-06-229839-3.
• The Maverick's Museum: Albert Barnes and His American Dream. 2025. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780063284036