Dr. Max Koss

21335 Lüneburg, Universitätsallee 1, C5.418
Fon +49.4131.677-1921, max.koss@leuphana.de
Wiss. Mitarbeiter*in, Professorship of Provenance Studies

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Vita

Max Koss is an art and cultural historian from Berlin (East) whose work advances a historically grounded understanding of modern art as a product of media ecologies, material technologies, and transnational exchange. Rather than approaching artworks or periodicals as autonomous aesthetic forms, he analyzes the infrastructures that produced and stabilized them: technologies, supply chains, exhibition formats, collecting strategies, and systems of cataloguing and documentation.

His research brings together the material and technical history of art with questions of reception, taste formation, and cultural value. By linking close analysis of objects and media to broader networks of circulation and economic conditions, he situates modern art within the intertwined histories of production, distribution, and consumption.

Koss studied economic history (BSc) at the London School of Economics, art history (MA) at the Courtauld Institute and the University of Chicago, where he obtained an MA and PhD. His 2019 dissertation “The Art of the Periodical: Pan, Print Culture and the Birth of Modern Design in Germany, 1890-1900” presented the first English-language book-length study of the groundbreaking and historic art nouveau periodical.

His research has been supported with grants from the Max Planck Society, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service, the German Schiller Association, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, as well as the Edward A. Maser Fellowship and the Smart Family Foundation Fellowship from the University of Chicago, among others. Max has held internships in various roles at the Smart Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and the Kunstbibliothek of the Berlin State Museums. 

Dr. Max Koss is a Research Associate at Leuphana University Lüneburg and has been a member of the Provenance Lab since 2021. He is also a co-organizer of the Periodical Research Working Group.

Projects

Publications

Books and anthologies

  1. where paintings live: A Portrait of the Leimgruber Schenk Collection of Works by Angela Lyn with a Text by Max Koss
    Max Koß (Author) , Angela Lyn (Author) , 2024 St. Gallen/Berlin , 128 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologies › Book › Research

  2. The Art of the Periodical: Pan, Print Culture and the Birth of Modern Design in Germany, 1890-1900
    Max Koß (Author) , 2019 Ann Arbor , 373 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologies › Monographs › Research › peer-review

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Journal contributions

  1. People Information in Provenance Data: Biographical Entity Linking with Wikidata and ULAN
    Max Koß (Author) , Lynn Rother (Author) , Fabio Mariani (Author) , 13.12.2024 , in: Zivot Umjetnosti, 114, 1 , p. 148-161 , 14 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

  2. Verknüpfte Daten: Die Zukunft der Provenienzforschung
    Lynn Rother (Author) , Max Koß (Author) , Fabio Mariani (Author) , 05.12.2024 , in: Museumskunde, 89, 1/2 , p. 26-31 , 6 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Transfer

  3. Hidden Value: Provenance as a Source for Economic and Social History
    Lynn Rother (Author) , Max Koß (Author) , Fabio Mariani (Author) , 25.05.2023 , in: Jahrbuch fur Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 64, 1 , p. 111-142 , 32 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

  4. On the Question of the Restoration of Wall Paintings
    Max Koß (Translator) , Alois Riegl (Author) , 01.09.2020 , in: West 86th, 27, 2 , p. 250-269 , 20 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research

  5. Thilo H. G. Westermann, Die Rezeption der Pan-Mythen in der bildenden Kunst zwischen Klassizismus und Moderne
    Max Koß (Author) , 24.07.2020 , in: Jahrbuch der Raabe-Gesellschaft, 60, 1 , p. 233-238 , 6 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Critical reviews › Research

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Contributions to collected editions/anthologies

  1. Where Paintings Live
    Max Koß (Author) , 01.10.2024 St. Gallen/Berlin , p. 112-117

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research

  2. History of the Collection
    Max Koß (Author) , 01.10.2024 St. Gallen/Berlin , p. 118-120

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research

  3. Catalogue
    Max Koß (Author) , 01.10.2024 St. Gallen/Berlin , p. 120-127

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research

  4. Interpreting Strings, Weaving Threads: Structuring Provenance Data with AI
    Lynn Rother (Author) , Max Koß (Author) , Fabio Mariani (Author) , 31.01.2024 Göttingen , p. 93-103 , 11 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research

  5. Teaching Provenance to AI: An Annotation Scheme for Museum Data
    Lynn Rother (Author) , Max Koß (Author) , Fabio Mariani (Author) , 27.12.2023 Bielefeld , p. 163-172 , 10 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research

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Activities

  1. Toward Interconnected Object Histories: Challenges and Opportunities in the Creation of Provenance Linked Open Data
    Fabio Mariani (Speaker) , Lynn Rother (Speaker) , Max Koß (Speaker)

    Activity: Conference Presentations › Research

  2. Memories of Paper: The Digital History of Pan
    Max Koß (Speaker)

    Activity: Conference Presentations › Research

  3. From Text to Data: AI and Human Expertise in Provenance Linked Open Data
    Fabio Mariani (Speaker) , Lynn Rother (Speaker) , Max Koß (Speaker)

    Activity: talk or presentation in privat or public events › Research

  4. Quantity, Quality, Trust: Dilemmas and Strategies of Museum Documentation in the Age of AI
    Lynn Rother (Speaker) , Fabio Mariani (Speaker) , Max Koß (Speaker)

    Activity: Conference Presentations › Research

  5. Artificial Intelligence, Human Expertise: the Case of Provenance Linked Open Data
    Fabio Mariani (Speaker) , Lynn Rother (Speaker) , Max Koß (Speaker)

    Activity: Conference Presentations › Research

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Prizes

  1. Edward A. Maser Fellowship
    Max Koß (Recipient) ,

    Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Research

  2. Doctoral Fellowship
    Max Koß (Recipient) ,

    Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Research

  3. Association of Art Museum Directors' Samuel H. Kress Foundation Provenance Research Fellowship
    Max Koß (Recipient) ,

    Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Research

  4. DAAD Graduate Fellowship
    Max Koß (Recipient) ,

    Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Research

  5. Graduate Fellowship
    Max Koß (Recipient) ,

    Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Research

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Courses