John W. Coffey is an American author and art historian. He was born on March 12, 1954 and attended Needham B. Broughton High School

Needham B. Broughton High School

Needham Bryant Broughton High School, or simply Broughton High School, is one of the flagship schools of the Wake County Public School System. It is located at 723 St. Mary's Street, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Broughton was named after the Raleigh aristocrat, Needham B. Broughton, who...

. He received his undergraduate degrees in history and art history from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and received his masters in art history

Art history

Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...

 from Williams College

Williams College

Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...

. He currently is Deputy Director for Art and Curator of American and Modern Art at the North Carolina Museum of Art

North Carolina Museum of Art

The North Carolina Museum of Art is an art museum in Raleigh, North Carolina, featuring paintings and sculpture representing 5,000 years of artistic work from antiquity to the present. The museum features more than 40 galleries as well as more than a dozen works of art in its Museum Park...

 and was instrumental in making the museum a nationally renowned institution. He has published numerous articles, as well as several books and exhibition catalogues such as The Landscapes of Louis Remy Mignot: A Southern Painter Abroad with Katherine E. Manthorne and Moshe Kupferman: Between Oblivion and Remembrance.