Distinguished Artists

Criteria for inclusion: creating new listings and improving the quality of listings

 

All artists honored in the Distinguished Artists catalogue [1] are deceased American artists who created representational art. Click here to read Resource Library's [2] definition of representational art, which is the one we use for the catalogue.

 

Creating new listings

These steps taken by TFAO volunteers leading to nomination of artists and URL links for inclusion in the Distinguished Artists catalogue.

Step 1: Happen upon potential candidates when browsing the Web
 
Volunteers naturally enjoy the study of American art and from time to time browse the Web for pages of interest to them. While doing this they may chance upon artists they want to study further. These artists can be good candidates for the catalogue.
 
 
Step 2: Determine that candidates are deceased and created representational art
 
 
Step 3: Check to see if candidates are already included in Distinguished Artists
 
 
Step 4: Search the Web for biographies
 
Hint: See "Improving the quality of listings" below for search techniques.
 
 
Step 5: Review all of the information gathered to determine the best Web page (URL) for recommendation to TFAO and send a recommendation of an artist and URL by email to TFAO at

 

Improving the quality of listings

Besides recommending new listings, TFAO welcomes volunteers to recommend links to pages from the Internet for artist biographies that they believe are superior to existing links in the catalogue.

Hint: On the average volunteers spend about one hour to review 20 names in the Distinguished Artists catalogue.

 
First step
 
TFAO recommends as a first step in the review of an existing listing that the volunteer open two browser windows on her or his computer.The first browser window shows the Distinguished Artists catalogue page under study. The second window is for a Google search page.
 
 
Second step
 
If the catalogue link for an artist is to a tfaoi.org or tfaoi.com page, there is no need to search further.
 
If the catalogue link for an artist is to any other source the volunteer conducts a Google search.
 
Hint: When conducting the Google search put the word "artist" after the artist's name to help narrow down the search results. There is no need to review more than two pages of Google search results for an artist. TFAO uses Google Advanced Search and sets the results per page to 20 search returns. TFAO has found that 20 search returns are adequate for researching an artist's name.
 
The volunteer reviews the quality and quantity of text devoted to the artist from the search results. Biographical information from non-profit sources (usually .org or .edu sites) is generally favored over commercial (usually .com sites) sites. If a .com site has materially more information than a non-profit site the .com page is selected.
 
Hint: Search results leading to ArtNet.com, wwar.com, and poster sites are not useful.
 
Volunteers use subjective criteria in determining the best Web page for recommendation to TFAO including quality of the source, credentials of the author and stability of the URL. Preference is given to biographical information by recognized scholars for an artist, principal art dealers for the estate of an artist, and descendants of an artist, biographical information with relatively larger word count.
 
TFAO requires all links to be to free information and avoid websites that require a fee to view biographies.
 
Outdated links occur regularly. Outdated links for listed artists may occur because owners of Web pages choose to relocate artist biographies to other pages. In other cases biographies are permanently erased. Sometimes there is a "404 Not Found" message. For an outdated link the replacement process may be as simple as recommending to TFAO a new link on the source's website. To do this, a volunteer can use a search engine advanced search option to search within the domain name of the dead link.
 
Here is a "404 Not Found" example: When a volunteer checked the artist Alexander Theobald Van Laer in 2006, a message from Google was retrieved saying "404 Not Found -The requested URL was not found on this server." The page for the dead link was http://mattatuckmuseum.org/vanlaer.htm". The volunteer then did a Yahoo advanced web search for the exact phrase Van Laer in the domain mattatuckmuseum.org/ to retrieve a relocated link at http://mattatuckmuseum.org/collections/art/vanlaer.htm/. Update: The Mattatuck Museum once again changed it's link structure after the new link was found in 2006 and the link to the artist as of March, 2007 could again no longer be found!
 
 
Third step
 
The volunteer reviews all of the information gathered to determine the best Web page (URL) for recommendation to TFAO and sends a recommendation of an artist and URL by email to TFAO at

 

TFAO editor's judgment

Out of courtesy to people who bookmark pages, Distinguished Artists link preference is usually given to Resource Library's pages -- even if they have less biographical information that other pages -- because Resource Library's pages are very stable and are not abandoned over time. When people bookmark links among Resource Library's pages, they are assured of clear routing to the information they want to remember. Some other sources have tendencies to abandon pages without saving pathways to relocated information. Sometimes the information is simply erased. Museums with young websites tend to reorganize them several times -- losing pathways in the process -- before settling on a lasting site map. Museums and art dealers who do not archive online exhibit information may drop pages once special exhibits are ended. New leadership often leads to reorganization of sites and the destruction of prior URL pathways.

The context surrounding the Resource Library information on an artist is often meaningful to understanding the relationship of the artist to larger themes in art history.

The catalogue's links to Resource Library's pages noting individual artists tend to improve over time. When Resource Library publishes a new article or essay related to an artist, the editor's notes at the end of the text are amended to include all prior links concerning the artist. A catalogue link to the most recent text is then created. Further links from Web searches are also added continuously

If the original link is to a Resource Library page, TFAO will often add recommended links at the bottom of that page in the editor's notes instead of replacing the Distinguished Artists link to the Resource Library page.

 

About AskArt links

When the catalogue was originally assembled in the 1990s many of the links were to free AskArt.com pages containing biographies. In 2006 AskArt began charging viewers to read its biographies beyond several free lines of text. Because of AskArt's change of policy, TFAO now seeks biographical sources other than AskArt. If, however, the amount of free biographical information AskArt provides for an artist is greater than other sources, TFAO may temporarily continue the AskArt link. In rare cases, the only online reference to an artist is to an AskArt page that does not contain biographical text. In those instances, the artist is deleted from Distinguished Artists. A recent TFAO audit indicated that about 90% of links to AskArt pages were able to be replaced with links to other sources.

 

Recognition to our volunteers

TFAO greatly appreciates the efforts made by volunteers to improve the Distinguished Artists catalogue. Please click here to see how we recognized the work of a volunteer who worked on a letter in the catalogue.

 

rev. 10/26/07

Notes:

1. Before 2005 TFAO's Distinguished Artists catalogue was named the Distinguished Artists Series.

2. Resource Library is a publication of Traditional Fine Arts Organization. For access to thousands of Resource Library articles and essays, see the publications's subject indexes. For teachers and students wishing to study American art history from additional perspectives such as race and ethnic orientation, Resource Library contains texts related to a plethora of subjects. An easy way to identify specific texts is to use Resource Library's search feature, as articles and essays are fully indexed. Since American art museums often focus on local art history, an index to assist in identification of articles and essays with a regional focus is useful. See Resource Library's Sources of Articles and Essays Indexed by State within the United States for a handy guide. Also find hundreds of additional texts through Online Articles, Books and Essays (published outside of Resource Library)

 

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