Provides comprehensive profiles of nearly 850 of the most significant artists working in the contemporary era. The vast majority of these artists have done their most significant work in the years after 1960. Artists were nominated for inclusion by an advisory board of international art scholars and curators. The artists selected for inclusion have exhibited in major galleries or museums and have attracted significant critical attention. All areas of the fine arts are represented, including paintings, graphics, sculpture, mixed media, and performance, also contains a number of artists active in the fields of computer and Internet art.