Artists operate under a different set of circumstances and all of them affect h/his work. Illiterate societies used art to appease their gods, or ensured fertility and frighten their enemies. All through the use of art. Renaissance artists had to please either the Church, rich patrons, or both. Korean artists had compelling nationalistic reasons to distinguish their art from Chinese art. Modern artists explored new ways of seeing even while a world war raged in Europe and a depression hit America. Contemporary artists are every bit as creative, and also need to balance creativity with commerce.   Art history is not just about drawing, painting, and sculpture. You will also run across architecture, photography, film, mass media, the performing arts.  Installations, animation, videos, landscape and decorative arts like furniture, ceramics, woodworking, goldsmithing, and so much more. If someone created something worth seeing art history will present it to you.
Let's not forget studying art history also requires analysis, critically thinking and yes, writing. Spelling will come into play and you cannot escape research and sourcing.  Think about the amount of visual stimulation we are bombarded with on a daily basis. You are probably reading this on your computer monitor, smartphone, iPad or tablet.
And though we may not appreciate it, mathematics. measurements. We have all heard of the Golden Section, Thirds, proportion, scale.   As a species, we are shifting from predominantly verbal thinking to visual thinking. Learning is becoming more visual and less text-oriented; this requires us to respond not just with analysis or memorization, but also with informed emotional insight.
It is the most human thing imaginable to want to know about our ancestors, the people who made us who we are. What did they look like? How did they dress? Where did they gather, work, and live? All this is a part of Art history.
Then there is also photography which has been around less than 200 years. Film is even more recent, and digital images are relative newcomers. If we want to see any person that existed prior to these technologies we must rely on an artist.
Art history informs us about ourselves. The history of Art reflects the way we once lived, how and what we thought and the many ways we expressed ourselves. Without this history, and the knowledge of artists who came before we might well be coming out of the dark ages.