Twentieth-century artists reevaluated materials as central to artistic expression, not just as tools. They emphasized the raw qualities of materials, rejected traditional art forms, and explored new creative possibilities.
20th-century artists discovered the value and richness of materials. This is not to say that earlier artists did not understand that creative compositions emerge from materials and that materials can limit expression. They knew that they had to be in constant dialogue with materials and draw inspiration from them. However, they believed that materials themselves were not yet endowed with an aesthetic order, and that beauty could only be created by actively expressing ideas and forms on them.
In the 20th century, however, the view of art began to change dramatically. After the Industrial Revolution, rapidly changing society and technological advances provided new inspiration for artists. As new materials and techniques emerged, artists began to question traditional art techniques. They no longer viewed materials as mere tools; rather, they believed that materials themselves could be the center of artistic expression.
Twentieth-century artists rebelled against this conviction and reevaluated materials. They abandoned the conventional framework of the plastic arts and began to explore the infinite possibilities of materials that were still undiscovered, undamaged, and fresh. In this way, materials that had been considered only as a base for a work became an object of art and an object of artistic creation.
For example, in the paintings called ‘informel’ we see a triumph of materials: stains, cracks, lumps, chunks, flakes, and drips. Informel painters leave everything to the materials themselves – the paint spilled on the canvas, the torn sack, the cracked metal – to directly reveal the accidental and spontaneous stirrings of emotion. They seem to reject any formality in order to make the painting or sculpture as it is, or as a product of chance. The artists simply give their works titles that remind them of their raw materials. Several en plein air painters chose and emphasized pebbles, stains, mold, rust, and other materials to create a single work, minimizing conscious and artificial acts of representation while trying to give meaning to the atypicality of the materials and imprint their style.
The ready-made aesthetic proposed by artists like Duchamp already in the early 20th century can be understood in the same way. Duchamp challenged the traditional notion of art by transforming everyday objects mass-produced in factories into works of art. The artist placed objects on the table as if they were works of art, expressing a beauty that people hadn’t yet discovered. In this way, artists have chosen bicycle wheels, heat-deformed cups, mannequins, and even toilet seats as sculptures. These everyday objects have not undergone much transformation, but the moment they are selected and titled by an artist and become a work of art, they take on an aesthetic value as if they were created by the artist’s hand.
In some cases, the materials used are products that have already completed their consumption cycle and have been thrown in the trash or industrial waste. Through these materials, the artist reveals his cynical and critical attitude towards the industrialized world that surrounds him. At the same time, she reminds us that the objects of the industrialized world also have a certain order that can convey an aesthetic impression. These materials, which have reached the end of their consumption cycle and are discarded as useless objects, ironically become works of art with aesthetic value due to their uselessness, such as César’s work in which the radiator of an old car is pressed and deformed to create a distorted metal form.
In the 20th century, artists also explored new relationships with nature through materials. Materials taken from nature offered new possibilities for artists, who sought to capture the raw power of nature in their art. Natural materials such as stone, wood, earth, and sand were sometimes shaped by human hands, but sometimes they were left in their natural state and recognized as works of art. In this trend, materials became more than just a means of art, but a medium through which nature, humans, and art interacted.
In this way, 20th-century artists overturned traditional perceptions of materials and began to explore their aesthetic value in their own right. No longer a tool for expressing form, materials became art in their own right, at the center of creative exploration. This expanded the boundaries of modern art and opened up endless creative possibilities for artists.
