Why Study Art History at USC?
The Department of Art History at USC offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs that are designed to prepare students for teaching, research, and curatorial careers. It draws its strength from a dynamic and productive faculty in the fields of North American, Continental European, British, Mediterranean, Latin American, and Asian Art. Studying objects in their complex physical, cultural and intellectual contexts, our program is committed to a historically situated, materially engaged, and theoretically nuanced approach to art history and visual culture.
Undergraduate Studies
Art history combines the study of art with the study of culture. The undergraduate major provides general knowledge of the history of art and, through upper-division courses, specialized knowledge in a variety of areas.
Graduate Studies
USC’s department of Art History offers its doctoral degree in a wide range of fields of Western and Asian art history, from ancient to contemporary. It is designed to prepare students for university teaching, research, and curatorial careers.
Prospective Ph.D. Students
USC is a diverse community of scholars in the heart of Los Angeles — a dynamic center for technology, health services, media and the arts.
Department Calendar
News and Events
USC Pacific Asia Museum
Cai Guo-Qiang: A Material Odyssey
For several decades, artist Cai Guo-Qiang has used gunpowder and pyrotechnics to create drawings, paintings, and explosion events. The exhibition Cai Guo-Qiang:A Material Odyssey will fill the first floor galleries at the USC Pacific Asia Museum. Based on years of research by the Getty Conservation Institute and the Getty Research Institute, A Material Odyssey will explore the nature and properties of gunpowder and chronicle its use by the artist. This explosive material, invented in China over 1,100 years ago, has come to define Cai’s work. Its unpredictable nature dictates his artistic process and determines the outcome. Through gunpowder, the artist invites uncontrollable forces to participate in the creation of his work. With an abundance of artworks and scientific displays, the exhibition will narrate the lifelong love story of Cai Guo-Qiang with gunpowder.
The museum is closed Monday and Tuesdays.
Hours 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
September 17, 2024 – June 15, 2025
Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA)
OCMA’s exhibition Ordinary Extraordinary brings together a constellation of works that make the commonplace seem unfamiliar, uncanny, mysterious, and even magical.
The museum is closed Monday and Tuesdays.
Hours 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
November 22, 2024 – May 25, 2025
Norton Simon Museum
Mariana: Velázquez’s Portrait of a Queen from the Museo Nacional del Prado
Diego Velázquez’s extraordinary painting Queen Mariana of Austria (1652–53) forms the core of the exhibition Mariana: Velázquez’s Portrait of a Queen from the Museo Nacional del Prado, organized as part of the Norton Simon Museum’s Loan Exchange Program with the Spanish national art museum.
The museum is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Hours 12:00 am – 5:00 pm
December 13, 2024 – March 24, 2025
Our Voices Our Getty
Explore a selection of never-before-seen pages from the Museum’s collection of medieval manuscripts, accompanied by personal interpretations by Getty’s 2024 participants in the Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship program. Using nature as a theme, interns reflect on issues ranging from their own relationships to the environment to considerations of contemporary ecological issues, reframing and shedding new light on these historic objects.
An exciting new acquisition, a recently-discovered leaf by renowned French manuscript illuminator Jean Bourdichon, will also be on view in the gallery for the first time.
Feb 4–Apr 27, 2025
Getty Center
Museum North Pavillion, Plaza Level
Sci-Fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagi-Nation considers the importance of science fiction fandom and occult interests to U.S. LGBTQ history. Curated by ONE Archives at the USC Libraries and presented at the USC Fisher Museum of Art. In partnership with Getty PST.
January 14 – March 15, 2025
Tuesday – Friday: 10AM – 4PM
Olafur Eliasson: OPEN
Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967, Copenhagen; lives and works in Berlin) presents a new site-specific installation made for The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
On view Sept 15, 2024 – July 6, 2025
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
Tuesday and Sunday, 11am–5pm.
All visitors should reserve an online ticket.
Featured Faculty
2024-2025
Congratulations to Christine Garnier!
One of Art History’s most recent Post Doctoral candidates who has accepted the position of Assistant Professor of Art History at UC Santa Barbara.
Congratulations to Isabel Wade!
Her article, “Harry Drinkwater and the Limits of Architectural Photography, 1966–69,” was just published in the summer issue of American Art.
Congratulations to Amy Powell!!
She has been named a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton for 2024-25.
Undergraduate Student Spotlight
Ph.D Student Spotlight
Art History Ph.D Alumni
Local Area Resources
USC’s program takes great advantage of our location within the vibrant cultural environment of Los Angeles. undergraduate fieldtrips and Graduate seminars are regularly held on site or work with collections in area museums including the including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), the Getty Center, the Getty Villa and the USC Fisher Museum of Art among others.
Los Angeles Museums
USC Museums, Archives and Special Collections
Contact
Art History Main Office
USC Dornsife Department of Art History
3501 Trousdale Parkway, THH 355
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0351
Chair of Art History
David St. John
University Professor and Professor of English and Comparative Literature
Chair, Department of Art History
dstjohn@usc.edu
Staff
Elizabeth Massari
Office Manager
massari@usc.edu
Tracey L. Marshall
Administrative Assistant II
traceyma@usc.edu