New materials in 20th-century art

Imagine you're at kindergarten, and you're making art with some new materials. Your teacher used to give you only crayons and paper, but now there are many new things to play with. You have glitter, glue, markers, and even some pieces of metal and plastic!

Well, artists in the 20th century also got some new materials to play with. They moved beyond traditional things like oil paint and canvas. They started experimenting with materials like metal, plastic, and even garbage, things that were not typically used in art before.

These new materials helped artists create new types of art. For example, they could make sculptures in ways that were impossible before. They could create shapes and textures that were unfamiliar to people's eyes. They could make art that was more interactive, like installations that you could walk through or touch.

Some artists used these materials to make statements about the world around them. Like, they would make art out of garbage to show how much waste we produce. Or use plastic to make art that reflects our dependence on it in our daily lives.

So just like you have new art materials to play with at kindergarten, artists in the 20th century had new materials to play with that helped them create new and exciting types of art.