Having an understanding of art history and knowing how to understand and talk about art work can help you in creating your own work. For centuries art has been used as a way to communicate, conveying ideas, messages and information to an audience. Being able to talk about the ways artists have achieved this through their work in the past allows us to see how we might use similar techniques in our own work to show our own messages in our art. Many contemporary artists reference historical works in their own art and this can give their work a richer meaning, understanding some art history can help to decode the meaning of art works.