Giacomo Balla
Born in Turin in 1871, he completed his studies there and then moved to Rome in 1895 after a short stay in Paris. He soon came into contact with the artistic-cultural circle that gravitated around the figures of Giovanni Prini, Duilio Cambellotti and Giovanni Cena and quickly became an important point of reference in the Roman artistic environment. Master of Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini he regularly exhibits at the Exhibitions of Amateurs and Connoisseurs of Fine Arts.
Initially close to themes of strong social inspiration and to the pointillist technique ("La giornata dell’operaio", 1904; "La pazza", 1905) in 1909 he created "Lampada ad arco", which sanctioned the adhesion to the Futurist movement of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, with whom he was signatory of the Futurist Manifesto.
He begins his research on dynamism by approaching Bragaglia's photodynamic experiments (Dinamismo di un cane al guinzaglio, 1912) and studies on the decomposition of light (Compenetrazioni iridescenti, 1912-1914) and on movement. In 1915 the Futurist cycle ends with the creation of the cycle dedicated to Interventionist Demonstrations: in the same year he signs together with Fortunato Depero the "Manifesto della Ricostruzione futurista dell'universo" and begins to experiment with the use of different materials in a plastic key. The personal exhibition with which the Bragaglia House of Art was inaugurated in 1918.
Moving further away from futurist themes over the course of the following decade, in the 1920s his work is characterized by an imaginative stylization of naturalistic motifs: intense and violent chromatism is also used by the artist in decoration and applied arts.
In 1925 he participated in the Roman Biennale while in 1928 he exhibited with the Amateurs and Cultors of Fine Arts a series of works in which the renewed interest in figuration and in the themes of everyday life but also in portraits and landscapes emerges.
He died in Rome in 1958.
