Giacomo Balla, born on July 18, 1871 in Turin and died on March 1, 1958 (at the age of 86) in Rome, was an Italian painter and sculptor who joined the Futurist movement in 1910.
Giacomo Balla's Biography
Giacomo Balla studied painting in Turin and spent a short time at the Accademia Albertina. He worked for several years as an illustrator and caricaturist for various Turin periodicals and publishers. From 1899, the artist presented his first works, influenced by neo-impressionism, at international exhibitions, mainly landscapes (Elisa ai giradini, 1902) and social subjects (Il Mendicante, 1902).
He gave courses in divisionist painting (developed by Paul Signac) in his studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome where he taught two future students, Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini. He also had Rougena Zátková as a student. In 1900-1901, he was with Severini in Fontenay-aux-Roses, with Serafino Macchiati, painting landscapes.
In 1910, Giacomo Balla joined Futurism, an Italian artistic movement initiated by Boccioni in 1909 and theorized by the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti: Balla signed two manifestos published that year, the Manifesto of Futurist Painters (in April) and the Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting.
At the end of 1911, together with Boccioni, Severini and Carlo Carrà, he went to Paris where, under the aegis of the critic Félix Fénéon, the first real exhibition of the Futurist group of artists was held from February 5 to 24, 1912, at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune.
He was particularly interested in the dynamism of color and light. Fillette courant sur un balcon (1912) represents the culmination of his Futurist phase, with a division of color into isolated spots that create the illusion of movement. This phase opens with Lampe à arc (1909-1910), which announces the Compénétrations iridescentes composed between 1912 and early 1914.
In 1913, he sold his previous figurative paintings: it was the stylistic break, programmed and announced. From then on, he composed collages and paintings of "words in freedom".
In 1915, together with the painter Fortunato Depero, he wrote a manifesto entitled Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe.
During the First World War, Balla's studio became a meeting place for young artists, but towards the end of the war the Futurist movement showed signs of decline. After the war, he turned to film and design.
In 1929 Balla co-signed the Manifesto of Futurist Aeropainting (Manifesto dell'Aeropittura futurista) with Marinetti, Fortunato Depero, Prampolini, Dottori, Benedetta Cappa, Fillia, Tato (it) and Somenzi for publication in the Gazzetta del Popolo of September 22, 1929, in the article entitled Prospettive di volo.
In 1935 he was made a member of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. In 1937 he broke with Futurism but returned to it in 1948.
Balla participated in documenta 1 in 1955 in Cassel, Germany. His works were shown posthumously at documenta 8 in 1987.
Giacomo Balla's Works
- Lantern - Study of Light, 1909, oil on canvas, 174.7 × 114.7 cm
- Iridescent Compenetrations
- The Arc Lamp, 1910, oil on canvas, 174.7 × 114.5 cm
- Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, 1912, oil on canvas, 90.8 × 110 cm, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
- Girl Running on a Balcony, 1912, oil on canvas, 125 x 125 cm, Milan, Museo del Novencento
- Sarah Running to the Water of Life, 1913
- Dynamic Expansion + Speed, 1913, National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rome
- Abstract Speed, 1913, oil on canvas, 50 × 65.5 cm
- Mercury Passing Before the Sun, 1914, oil on canvas, 120 × 100 cm
- Sculptural Construction of Noise and Speed, 1914-1915, aluminum and steel sculpture mounted on painted wood, 101.8 × 118.0 × 20.0 cm, Washington D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
- Form Shouting "Long Live Italy," 1915, oil on canvas, 134 × 188 cm
- The Fist of Boccioni, 1916-1917, painted brass sculpture, 83.8 × 80 × 33 cm, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
- Transformation form-spirit, 1918, oil on canvas, 51 × 66 cm
- Fiore futurista, 1920, private collection
- Pessimism-Optimism, 1923, oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, Milan
- Les Chiffres amoureux," 1924, oil on canvas, private collection