Richards Artschwagers work was formally influenced by the work of Amédée Ozenfant, a purist painter. He was one of the forefathers of abstraction in the early 20^th century. Through precision and rationality Artschwager refined his craft of any different style of art. He was a major influence in Conceptualism in the 1960’s. Conceptualism explores notions of the metaphysical concept of the Universal. The conceptualized is then framed within the mind creating a specific perspective displayed through the work.  Some other highly influential artists associated with Conceptualism are Joseph Kosuth, Sol LeWitt and Clement Greenberg. Another major artistic school he influenced was minimalism. Minimalism explores simplistic ideals of form and function to critique the creation of an art piece. Other influential artists of minimalism consist of Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, and Robert Morris. His work was also a direct influenced to pop art work even though he himself did not wish to be directly associated with the movement. Other pop artists are Andy Warhol, Roy Lictenstein and Richard Hamiliton. He later influenced artist in the 1980s such as Haim Steinbach, Meyer Vaisman, Ashley Bickerton, and John Armleder Who are known for works of contemporary art and the critique thereof. Later in his career he explored aspects of politically loaded art work and images.