It can and does work. One of my best friends had an artwork as a related text, I don't know if she actually ended up using it with the question but she did superbly well in the assessments and in the exam. If you're going to use artwork though, just like any other piece of related material, make sure u can use it well and can refer to techniques etc...
On another note, art is the most traditional form of propaganda so of course they can be used to manipulate the truth...