Tired of explaining to my college peers that yes, actually art history is essential knowledge for anyone who is ever in charge of designing concept art for pretty much anything.
"but I'll work on sci fi and futuristic shit" ALL THE MORE REASON!! TO KNOW YOUR ART HISTORY!!! art history is all about how historical context and background affects the aesthetic trends of the time. Therefore they help you think of how the context of your fictional words affects the aesthetic trends within it. It's really not that hard to comprehend
And since I brought forward the word futuristic ☝️🤓 futurism as an art current was a product of fascism. Which is why it's a neat inspiration if you want to stylize violent and oppressive worlds that are seemingly innocently cool to the naked eye. Rococo is also great for stories set up in worlds with economical disparity that center the aristocracy. Art Nouveau works perfect for societies that value nature and center their lifestyles around it, so on.
Point is if you want to make concept art that feels fresh, innovative, and coherent to the universe you're representing you gotta at least know why other things in the past have felt fresh, innovative and coherent to their context.
In the spirit of avoiding any further confusion than what I've already caused in the examples above I was referring specifically to the Italian branch of futurism, which predates the Russian branch of futurism by at least a decade and whose manifesto contains statements such as
We will glorify war—the world’s only hygiene—militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scorn for woman
and
We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind, will fight moralism, feminism, every opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice.
anyways have a nice night!
