Michael Leja, professor of the history of art, has been named James and Nan Wagner Farquhar Professor of the History of Art. Dr. Leja is the author of two highly acclaimed books, Reframing Abstract Expressionism: Subjectivity and Painting in the 1940s and Looking Askance: Skepticism and American Art from Eakins to Duchamp, which won the Modernist Studies Association Book Prize. 

In addition to serving as graduate chair of the department of the history of art, Dr. Leja was instrumental in building the Visual Studies program. His research has been supported by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies and the Clark Fellowship.

The late Nan and James Farquhar, LAR’39, both prominent supporters of art history at Penn, established this chair in art history in 1988. They wanted the chair to support outstanding educators who would share insights and knowledge with students and forge links between art history and related disciplines.