Identifying the most important artists in a historical context: methods used and initial results. From: Historical Methods | Date: June 22, 2005| Author: O'Hagan, John; Kelly, Elish | COPYRIGHT 2005 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Abstract. The authors collect information on visual artists to allow a broad historical ranking of the most prominent artists. Their purpose is to examine the birth and work locations, and the consequential pattern of labor movement, of prominent artists over a number of long time periods. The article indicates that a relatively simple column-inch approach may suffice for the purpose of identifying the thousand or so most prominent artists, but that much more detailed source materi...