Blake Gopnik, author of 'The Maverick's Museum,' on the contradictory life and legacy of the man behind the world-famous ...

Ezra Pound described the scientist turned art collector Albert Barnes (1872-1951) as “at war with mankind.” After making a fortune in pharmaceuticals, Barnes developed eccentric ideas about ...

collecting modern art was outrageous. Within 10 years, Barnes had acquired some 700 paintings. But art to him was more than a proxy for cultural sophistication and a fat bank account. It made him ...

Barnes, among the first major American collectors of modern art, barrels onto the page in Blake Gopnik’s vivid, engrossing biography in a behemoth, chauffeur-driven, seven-seater, indigo Packard.