What is the art of the future? It all depends upon what year you are looking from…

In 1912, Duchamp created “Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2″ work with great enthusiasm. This path-breaking piece is a large 57.88″ X 35.12” oil work on canvas and currently hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This monochromic work, mainly in yellow and its shades, is quiet a ‘Cubist’ painting through its geometric representation rather than figurative. What really sets it apart is the spirit of ‘Futuristic Art’ infused in it. This painting hardly has any background, except the allusion to the dark ‘staircase.’ Instead of an embodiment of sensuality, this painting is composed of around twenty or so images of a mechanically structured figure, arranged in a sequence over the ‘staircase.’

Richard Michael Gorman Powers, at age eleven, was introduced to art when his uncle gave him a sketch book, although in later life his uncle’s wife would try to prevent from making any art. He studied Greek at Loyola University before switching to art, taking classes at Mizen Academy, Chicago Art Institute and the University of Illinois, Chicago. After enlisting to join World War II, he took more art classes at the University of Kentucky during basic training, thereafter working in the Signal Corps in New York City. He married and began a career in illustrations for magazines and publishing houses, continuing his art education at the New School in New York. Eventually, he became one of the most influential science fiction artists of all time – showing the possible future through his work.

Looking for more futuristic art, then check out: Di Fate who won the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist at the 1979 World Science Fiction Convention (for 1978 work) and was nominated ten times from 1972 to 1985. For his lifetime contributions he won the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction (the Skylark) from the New England Science Fiction Association in 1987 and the Chesley Award from the fantasy and science fiction artists in 1998. He also won the Frank R. Paul Award for Outstanding Achievement in Science Fiction Illustration (197and the Lensman Award for lifetime contribution in 1990 and he was a Guest of Honor at the 1992 Worldcon. He won the Rondo at the 2003 Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards for his work on the Monster-Mania Convention Program Cover.