Short Bios on an Artist or Designer – Top Pick
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Oxford Art OnlineTry this first. This huge electronic encyclopedia of art contains thousands of authoritative and well-documented biographies of artists, architects, and designers of all eras and cultures. Often links to illustrations.
Search Engines
Of course you can often find short bios by entering an artist’s name in a search engine and these can work fine if you examine them carefully. In general, the biographies posted by major museums, art galleries, and artists themselves, are of a higher quality than those provided by the many commercial sites such as Artcyclopedia, AskArt, Artnet, etc. Accuracy varies. Web bios for historic figures are frequently copied from public domain (pre-1923) sources. Wikipedia entries also vary, so check the “Talk” tab where the quality of the article may be discussed.
Less-Known Artists
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Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon OnlineUse this if Oxford Art Online does not have the artist you seek. It’s the world's largest list of brief biographies of artists (in all media, including architecture and photography.) All eras and locations. Includes recommended readings. Scholarly. The short texts are in German but easily pasted into a web translator. See the "General Abbreviations” link to decode the many abbreviations.
Special Types of Art People
Art Writers:
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Dictionary of Art HistoriansBios and bibliography on the most famous historians of art and architecture. (Open access!)
Curators, Educators, Gallerists, Critics, etc.
These are annual publications. Check several relevant years.