art.wikisort.org - Artist

Giacomo Balla (18 July 1871 – 1 March 1958) was an Italian painter, art teacher and poet best known as a key proponent of Futurism. In his paintings he depicted light, movement and speed. He was concerned with expressing movement in his works, but unlike other leading futurists he was not interested in machines or violence with his works tending towards the witty and whimsical.[1]

Giacomo Balla
Born	Giacomo Joseph Balla (1871-07-18)18 July 1871 Turin, Italy
Died	1 March 1958(1958-03-01) (aged 86) Rome, Italy
Known for	Painting, poetry
Movement	Futurism

Biography

Giacomo Balla was born in Turin, in the Piedmont region of Italy. He was the son of a photographer[2] and as a child studied music.

At age nine, after the death of his father, he gave up music and began working in a lithograph print shop. By age 20, his interest in visual art had developed to such a level that he decided to study painting at local academies, and several of his early works were shown at exhibitions. Following academic studies at the University of Turin, Balla moved to Rome in 1895, where he met and later married Elisa Marcucci. For several years he worked in Rome as an illustrator, caricaturist and portrait painter. In 1899, his work was exhibited at the Venice Biennale, and in the ensuing years his art was shown at major exhibitions in Rome and Venice, as well as in Munich, Berlin and Düsseldorf, at the Salon d'Automne in Paris, and at galleries in Rotterdam.

Around 1902, he taught Divisionist techniques to Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini.[3] Influenced by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Giacomo Balla adopted the Futurism style, creating a pictorial depiction of light, movement and speed. He was a signatory of the Futurist Manifesto in 1910. Typical for his new style of painting is Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash (1912) and his 1914 work Abstract Speed + Sound (Velocità astratta + rumore). In 1914, he began to design Futurist furniture, as well as so-called Futurist "antineutral" clothing.[4] Balla also began working as a sculptor, creating, in 1915, the well-known work titled Boccioni's Fist, based on 'lines of force' (Linee di forza del pugno di Boccioni).[5]

During World War I, Balla's studio became a meeting place for young artists.

In 1935, he was made a member of Rome's Accademia di San Luca.

In 1955, Balla participated in the documenta 1 in Kassel.

He died on 1 March 1958.

Notable works

Balla's 1909 painting The Street Light typifies his exploration of light, atmosphere, and motion.[6]

Balla's most famous works, such as his 1912 Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, aim to express movement – and thus the passage of time – through the medium of painting. One of Balla's main inspirations was the chronophotography of Étienne-Jules Marey.[7][8][9]

Balla's 1912 The Hand of the Violinist depicts the frenetic motion of a musician playing, and draws on inspiration from Cubism and the photographic experiments of Marey and Eadweard Muybridge.[10] [11]

In his abstract 1912–1914 series Iridescent Interpenetration, Balla attempts to separate the experience of light from the perception of objects as such.[12]

Abstract Speed + Sound (1913–14) is a study of speed symbolised by the automobile. Originally, it may have been part of a triptych.[13]

Balla's 1914 series Mercury Passing Before the Sun depicts the November 17, 1914 transit of Mercury across the face of the Sun. Balla created at least a dozen versions and studies of this work.

Legacy

In 1987, some of his artworks were exhibited at documenta 8, an exhibition of modern art and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany.

See also

• Works by Giacomo Balla
• Italian Futurism
• Parade (ballet)

References

Further reading

• Maurizio Fagiolo Dell'Arco, Balla: The Futurist (1988)
• Vivien Greene (ed.): Italian Futurism 1909 - 1944. Reconstructing the Universe, Guggenheim Museum 2014, ISBN 978-0-89207-499-0
• Giovanni Lista, Balla, catalogue général de l’œuvre, vol. I, Edizioni della Galleria Fonte d’Abisso, Modène, 1982 ; vol. II, L’Age d’Homme, Lausanne, 1984
• Giovanni Lista,Le Futurisme : création et avant-garde, Éditions L’Amateur, Paris, 2001
• Giovanni Lista, Balla, la modernità futurista, Edizioni Skira, Milan, 2008
• Giovanni Lista, Giacomo Balla: futurismo e neofuturismo, Mudima, Milano, 2009.
• Giacomo Balla, Scritti futuristi, raccolti e curati da Giovanni Lista, Abscondita, Milan, 2010.

External links

• Guide to Balla's paintings, at Artcyclopedia
• Abstract Speed + Sound by Giacomo Balla, Guggenheim Museum
• Giacomo Balla's Biography- Guggenheim Museum
• Article on Italian Futurism exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum

На других языках

---

[de] Giacomo Balla

Giacomo Balla (* 18. Juli 1871 in Turin; † 1. März 1958 in Rom) war ein italienischer Maler des Futurismus.

---

- [en] Giacomo Balla

---

[es] Giacomo Balla

Giacomo Balla (Turín, 18 de julio de 1871-Roma, 1 de marzo de 1958) fue un pintor y escultor italiano, uno de los fundadores del movimiento futurista.

---

[fr] Giacomo Balla

Giacomo Balla, né le 18 juillet 1871 à Turin et mort le 1er mars 1958 (à 86 ans) à Rome, est un peintre et sculpteur italien, rallié au mouvement futuriste dès 1910.

---

[it] Giacomo Balla

Giacomo Balla (Torino, 18 luglio 1871 – Roma, 1º marzo 1958) è stato un pittore, scultore, scenografo e autore di "paroliberi" italiano. Fu un esponente di spicco del Futurismo firmando assieme agli altri futuristi italiani i manifesti che ne sancivano gli aspetti teorici.

---

[ru] Балла, Джакомо

Джáкомо Ба́лла (итал. Giacomo Balla; 18 июля 1871, Турин — 1 марта 1958, Рим) — итальянский художник, один из основоположников итальянского футуризма.

---

---