Who’s Who in American Art is a compendium of mainly American artists published annually by Marquis Who’s Who in New Providence, New Jersey.
I noticed an artist listed in it in the mid 1970’s only appeared in that one year, but after his death in 2003, he was cited in the necrology section. Wondering why he had been omitted for roughly 30 years, I called the publisher and was told
a) either the artist contacted them and asked to be removed from future volumes OR
b) did not send in his/ her updated profile each year after having been listed initially
and to think I used to sell my old copies to another appraiser, thinking the new year would contain all the same artists, unless they had died.
Many art researchers and collectors use www.AskArt.com. In their section Book References, they do identify in which year of Who’s Who in American Art an artist is listed. This saves time, unless you enjoy thumbing through volume after volume, hoping to locate your artist.
I find it strange that Who’s Who in American Art is not available online, but then this could complicate selling each of us a book annually for $200.
Corinne Cain of www.SavvyCollector.com