Art historian Joan Kee has been appointed as the next director of New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. She will take on her new responsibilities on Monday, August 19.
Kee, who teaches art history at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, specializes in Asian and American modern and contemporary art. She graduated from Harvard Law School and the IFA with a Ph.D.
She will be in charge of one of the most prestigious graduate programs and research centers in the world for art history, archaeology, and art conservation as director of the Institute, housed in the landmarked Duke Mansion.
"In a field of wonderful candidates, Joan Kee distinguished herself through her remarkably expansive vision of art history and her ideas for productive, innovative, and interdisciplinary collaboration in art history across NYU," NYU President Linda G. Mills said.
She added that she was impressed by her ability to build bridges and support collaboration in art history across NYU, including with Arts and Science's Department of Art History, and her scholarly achievements, views on how the Institute can shape the next generation of art historians, especially her genuine love and appreciation for the IFA.
Kee's research focuses on art and digital media intersections, comparative diaspora studies, and the law. She has been acknowledged by the New Yorker and the Nation for igniting interest in Korean abstraction worldwide, specifically in the Tansaekhwa movement of the 1970s and 1980s.
Her book, 'Contemporary Korean Art: Tansaekhwa and the Urgency of Method (2013),' was shortlisted for the College Art Association's Charles Rufus Morey Book Award.
Her 2019 book 'Models of Integrity: Art and Law in Post Sixties America' is based on her legal profession and education, and major news media have sought her opinion on various legal, ethical, and artistic topics. The linkages between Black and Asian art are the subject of her most recent book, 'The Geometries of Afro Asia: Art beyond Solidarity,' which won the Robert Motherwell Book Award this year.
In a statement, Kee said it is a tremendous privilege to return to the IFA, a truly vigorous intergenerational art community that has opened up many vibrant worlds. She noted that it is still a privilege to join the IFA and that there are many exciting possibilities for collaboration and engagement with NYU, New York City, and the world.
