University of Southern California
USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
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About
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Karen Ann LangAdjunct Associate Professor of Art HistoryE-mail: Karen.Lang@warwick.ac.uk LINKS Faculty Profile on Departmental Website |
Description of Research |
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Summary Statement of Research Interests |
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| 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 |
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| Modern German Art and Aesthetic Theory | |
Conferences and Other Presentations |
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Conference Presentations |
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 "Two Keynotes and semianr leader", Reflection/Practice: Historiography, History, and Conceptions of Contemporaneity, Lecture/Seminar, Stockholm, Sweden, University of Stockholm, Invited, 09/25/2010-09/28/2010
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"A. R. Penck, Manfred Pernice, Isa Genzken. A Poetics of Banal German Things", Germans' Things: Material Culture and Daily Life in East and West 1949-2009, Lecture/Seminar, Los Angeles, The Wende Museum, Invited, 10/01/2009-10/03/2009
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""David Maisel's 'Library of Dust'"", New York Institute for the Humanities, Lecture/Seminar, New York, NY, New York Institute for the Humanities, Invited, 04/13/2009
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""Modern Art at LACMA"", Evenings for Educators Series, Lecture/Seminar, Los Angeles, CA, LACMA, Invited, 02/10/2009
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""Chuck Close's Hand"", Lecture/Seminar, Los Angeles, CA, Red Cat/Cal Arts Theater for Innovative Visual and, Invited, 12/11/2008
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"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
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""JETZT - The Now of Recognizability"", International Walter Benjamin Festival, Lecture/Seminar, Berlin, Germany, Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Invited, 10/17/2006-10/22/2006
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""Panofsky, Krauss, and the Illusions of a Scientific Art History"", Art and Metaphysics, Lecture/Seminar, Bremen, Germany, International University of Bremen, Invited, 05/18/2006-05/20/2006
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""The Experience of Time and the Time of History: Alois Riegl's Age Value and Walter Benjamin's Aura", College Art Association Annual Conference, Lecture/Seminar, Atlanta, College Art Association, Invited, 02/16/2005-02/19/2005
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Other Presentations |
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"Symposium on Gerhard Richter, in conjunction with the Getty exhibition "From Caspar David Friedrich to Gerhard Richter: German Paintings from Dresden"", Respondent, The Getty Research Institute, Santa Monica, CA, 02/23/2007-
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""Klimt and Vienna"", Invited Lecture, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, 04/25/2006-
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"Radical Aesthetics/Radical Politics", Respondent, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, 05/06/2006
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Publications |
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Book |
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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.
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Book Chapter |
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Lang, K.
(2010).
Richter's Painting, Richter's Hope. Gerhard Richter: Early Work, 1951-1972 pp. 156-163. Los Angeles, CA: Getty.
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Lang, K.
(2009).
"Max Beckmann's Inconceivable Modernism," in Max Beckmann Contextualized: Of Truths Impossible to Put in Words. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
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Lang, K.
(2008).
"Chinese Brushwork and the Well-Informed Eye," in Perspectives on the Connoisseurship of Chinese Painting. Washington D.C.: New Academia Publishing.
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Lang, K.
(2007).
"Ingrid Calame's Constellations," in Ingrid Calame. Constellations. pp. 12 - 19. New York, NY: James Cohan Gallery.
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Lang, K.
(2005).
"Encountering the Object". (Vol. 135-136). The Lure of the Object/Yale University Press.
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Lang, K.
(2003).
"The Hamburg Bismarck as City Crown and National Monument". (Vol. 119-145). Modernism and the Spirit of the City/Routledge.
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Lang, K.
(2000).
"The Body in the Garden," in Landscapes of Memory and Experience. (Vol. 107-127). London: Spon.
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Lang, K.
(1999).
"Reason and Remainders: Kantian Performativity in the History of Art". (Vol. 11-27). Performing the Body/Performing the Text/Routledge.
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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.
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Essay |
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Lang, K.
(2009).
"Der Expressionismus und die beiden deutschen Staaten," in Kunst und Kalter Krieg. Deutsche Positionen 1945 bis 1989. Cologne. DuMont.
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Lang, K.
(2009).
"Expressionism and the Two Germanys," in Cold War Cultures/Art of Two Germanys. (Stephanie Barron and Sabine Eckmann, Ed.). pp. 35. Los Angeles, CA. Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
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Lang, K.
(2009).
"Anish Kapoor's 'Svayambh'". pp. 60-63. Los Angeles, CA. X-TRA Contemporary Art Quarterly.
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Lang, K.
(2008).
April Gornik's Landscape. New York, NY. Danese Gallery.
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Journal Article |
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Lang, K.
(2010).
Maria Lassnig's Body Sensation, Body Awareness. X-tra Contemporary Art Quarterly.
Vol. 12 (2), pp. 66-70.
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Lang, K.
(2009).
Sir Ernst Gombrich and the Barber from Tuscany. Human Affairs.
Vol. 19 (3), pp. 259-265.
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Lang, K.
(2009).
Voluptuous Unease: David Maisel's Library of Dust. Getty Research Institute Journal.
Vol. 1 (1), pp. 35.
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Lang, K.
(2009).
Liat Yossifor's Below the Eye. X-tra Contemporary Art Quarterly.
Vol. 11 (4), pp. 56-59.
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Lang, K.
(2007).
"The Far in the Near". Art Bulletin/College Art Association.
Vol. LXXXIX (no. 1), pp. 26-34.
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Lang, K.
(1997).
"The Dialectics of Decay: Rereading the Kantian Subject". Art Bulletin/College Art Association.
Vol. LXXIX (no. 3), pp. 413-439.
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Honors and Awards |
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USC-Mellon Award for Excellence in Mentoring Graduate Students, 3/15/2007-
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Millard Meiss Award, College Art Association, 11/1/2005-
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Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor, History of Art, University of Warwick, England,
Spring
2011
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Residency at the Getty Center for Humanities and Arts, 9/5/2007-6/20/2008
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Faculty Fellowship, USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute,
Spring
2005
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Clark Art Institute Scholar in Residence, 7/1/2001-12/31/2001
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USC Multimedia Literacy Program Award,
Spring
2001
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Postdoctoral Fellowship, Getty Grant Program, 1998-1999
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Visiting Scholar, University of California, Humanities Research Institute,
Spring
1999
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Fellowship, NEH Humanities Research Institute, 6/1997-9/1997
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Service to the Profession |
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Editorships and Editorial Boards |
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Editor-in-Chief, The Art Bulletin, 01/01/2010-07/01/2013
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Professional Memberships |
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College Art Association, 2010-2011
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