With a gift from the family trust of the late abstract-expressionist painter Hans Hofmann (1880–1966), Columbia has established a new endowed chair, the Hans Hofmann Professorship of Modern Art. Kellie Jones, a Columbia art-history professor and renowned scholar of contemporary African-American and African-diaspora art, is the inaugural incumbent.
“Columbia is one of the national leaders in art-historical scholarship, which makes the University a welcome home to the professorship,” said Patricia Gallagher, a trustee of the New York–based Renate, Hans, and Maria Hofmann Trust. “We are thrilled Jones will carry on Hans Hofmann’s devotion to art of the postwar period.”
