USC College Department of Art History

Faculty

Karen Lang

Associate Professor of Art History

Contact Information
E-mail: klang@usc.edu
Phone: (213) 821-1376
Office: VKC 351

Description of Research

Summary Statement of Research Interests

Professor Lang's research focus is modern German art and aesthetic theory. Her book, Chaos and Cosmos: On the Image in Aesthetics and Art History (Cornell University Press, 2006), examines the conceptual foundations of the discipline of the history of art. In addition to her scholarship on art history as a field of study and the ways we situate, address, and explain works of art, she has written on the concept of the monument and the monument's relation to German national identity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; Alexander Pope's garden and grotto; the grotto as "escape space," from the eighteenth century to Rem Koolhaas' Y2K House of 2000; and Kantian philosophy. Her second book project, Max Beckmann's Inconceivable Modernism, studies the artist's work in relation to an emerging canon of modern European art. Focusing on Beckmann's visual art, manifestoes, plays, letters, and diaries, this book explores the ways works of art are translated and categorized into systems of knowledge such as "Modernism," or are rendered inconceivable within the parameters set up by these categories. Professor Lang teaches undergraduate courses on European modernism, visual culture, and critical approaches to modern art. Titles of her graduate seminars include "Theories and Methods of Art History;" "The Sublime in Aesthetics and Visual Culture;" "Style: Problems and Prospects in Art History and Aesthetics;" and "New Books and the Book Review." Whenever possible, Professor Lang teaches with original works of art. Her seminar on German Expressionism focused on prints and drawings in three local collections; her fall 2006 seminar coincides with an exhibition at the Getty Museum entitled "From Caspar David Friedrich to Gerhard Richter: German Paintings from Dresden."

Research Specialties

Modern German Art and Aesthetic Theory

Detailed Statement of Research Interests

Affiliations with Research Centers, Labs, and Other Institutions

USC Center for Feminist Research,http://www.usc.edu/dept/cfr/

Conferences and Other Presentations

Conference Presentations

"David Maisel's Library of Dust", Graduate Student Symposium, Keynote Lecture, Paper, UC Berkeley, History of Art Department, Invited, 03/14/2008-03/15/2008
""JETZT - The Now of Recognizability"", International Walter Benjamin Festival, Talk/Oral Presentation, , Berlin, Germany, Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Invited, 10/17/2006-10/22/2006
""Panofsky, Krauss, and the Illusions of a Scientific Art History"", Art and Metaphysics, Talk/Oral Presentation, , Bremen, Germany, International University of Bremen, Invited, 05/18/2006-05/20/2006
""The Experience of Time and the Time of History: Alois Riegl's Age Value and Walter Benjamin's Aura", College Art Association Annual Conference, Talk/Oral Presentation, , Atlanta, College Art Association, Invited, 02/16/2005-02/19/2005

Publications

Book

Lang, K. (2006). Chaos and Cosmos: On the Image in Aesthetics and Art History . Ithaca, NY: Chaos and Cosmos: On the Image in Aesthetics and Art History/Cornell University Press.

Book Chapter

Lang, K. (2008). Perspectives on the Connoisseurship of Chinese Painting. pp. 142-164. Washington, DC: New Academia Publishing.
Lang, K. (2007). "Max Beckmann's Inconceivable Modernism," in Max Beckmann Contextualized: Of Truths Impossible to Put in Words. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
Lang, K. (2007). "Chinese Brushwork and the Well-Informed Eye," in Perspectives on the Connoisseurship of Chinese Painting. Washington D.C.: New Academia Publishing.
Lang, K. (2007). "Ingrid Calame's Constellations," in Ingrid Calame. Constellations. pp. 12 - 19. New York, NY: James Cohan Gallery.
Lang, K. (2005). "Encountering the Object". (Vol. 135-136). The Lure of the Object/Yale University Press.
Lang, K. (2003). "The Hamburg Bismarck as City Crown and National Monument". (Vol. 119-145). Modernism and the Spirit of the City/Routledge.
Lang, K. (1999). "Reason and Remainders: Kantian Performativity in the History of Art". (Vol. 11-27). Performing the Body/Performing the Text/Routledge.
Lang, K. (1998). "Monumental Unease: Monuments and the Making of National Identity in Germany". (Vol. 274-299). Washington, D.C.: Imagining Modern German Culture: 1889-1910/National Gallery of Art.
Lang, K. "The Body in the Garden". (Vol. 107-127). London: Landscapes of Memory and Experience/Spon.

Essay

Lang, K. (2007). Cold War Cultures/Art of Two Germanys. (Stephanie Barron and Sabine Eckmann, Ed.). pp. 35. Los Angeles, CA. Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Journal Article

Lang, K. (2008). Voluptuous Unease: David Maisel's Library of Dust. Getty Research Institute Journal. Vol. 1 (1), pp. 35.
Lang, K. (2007). "The Far in the Near". Art Bulletin/College Art Association. Vol. LXXXIX (no. 1), pp. 26-34.
Lang, K. (1997). "The Dialectics of Decay: Rereading the Kantian Subject". Art Bulletin/College Art Association. Vol. LXXIX (no. 3), pp. 413-439.

Honors and Awards

USC-Mellon Award for Excellence in Mentoring Graduate Students, 3/15/2007-
Millard Meiss Award, College Art Association, 11/1/2005-
Residency at the Getty Center for Humanities and Arts, 9/5/2007-6/20/2008
Faculty Fellowship, USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute, Spring 2005
Clark Art Institute Scholar in Residence, 7/1/2001-12/31/2001
USC Multimedia Literacy Program Award, Spring 2001
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Getty Grant Program, 1998-1999
Visiting Scholar, University of California, Humanities Research Institute, Spring 1999
Fellowship, NEH Humanities Research Institute, 6/1997-9/1997

Service to the Profession

Professional Memberships

College Art Association, 2005-2006