Contemporary vs. Traditional art, part 1.

What is contemporary art? Contemporary art is (according to my good friend Wikipedia) art produced in the present day currently by artists most active from 1970 onward. It doesn't have to have a cultural significance to it, it just has to be art, and convey some type of message, from the simple to the complex. One of the first things that came to mind when I thought of contemporary art was tabletop games, since art is often used to convey some sort of message to the player, typically for gameplay and/or flavour (thematic) purposes.

Take for example, the Magic: The Gathering card Hero's Downfall.

Here's the art:

And here is what it does:

What better way to show something being mercilessly destroyed than by having it crushed underfoot? 

Here's another cool one, Iroas, The God of Victory: 

And here's what he does:

It doesn't take a Magic expert to realize that he, well, kinda grants victory to things, making them hard to block and harder to kill, and when your army is big enough, he joins in on the fight. Also, just look at him. Doesn't he look like he's just ready to win? Another great example of art conveying a message, 

Magic is just one example of how art is used to convey both thematic elements and gameplay elements to the player. It's also great for showing various settings, such as the war torn worlds of Warhammer 40,000:

The Tyranids are a hivemind race of voracious alien monsters.

In addition to the art used both promotionally and thematically in Warhammer 40k, there are also the well detailed plastic and (once upon a time) die-cast models used to play the game, which people also often collect, build, paint, modify and sometimes even create for their own custom Warhammer experiences:

The Space Marines are the mascots of Warhammer 40k, and represent the human race.

The technologically advanced Tau Empire are a generally peaceful race, assuming you don't stand between them and their "Greater Good".

The Eldar are an advanced and ancient, but dying race. They have powerful psionic abilities, and are similar to traditional fantasy elves in appearance.

And of course, who can forget the granddaddy of tabletop games, good old Dungeons and Dragons:

Doesn't this just make you want to explore the world of the Forgotten Realms?

Not only does this demon look menacing, but he's an integral part of visualizing the gameplay. Make sure to thank this friendly, helpful demon.

What kind of fantasy game would D&D be without Undead? Also, WOO, FIFTH EDITION!

With D&D, visualizing the locales, people, things, and actions plays a big part in how enjoyable your experience is, Thanks to the art depicting the various monsters, locales, campaign settings, and other aspects of the D&D universe, spread throughout the player and dungeon master handbooks, as well as the rulebook, campaign books, and monster manuals, it makes the experience much easier to visualize, and thus enjoy, while conveying its message and still leaving enough to the imagination. Magic and Warhammer 40k do this similarly. While it is mostly to provide an experience, can the same not be said for traditional art? Stay tuned for part 2 when I tackle traditional art.