GIACOMO BALLA; his artist quotes on painting & Futurism art
including biography and life facts & statements on Futurism art, by the Italian painter / teacher
GIACOMO BALLA (1871 – 1958), his artist quotes and art biography facts: a senior artist and famous painter of the Italian Futurism art movement. Attracted by Marinetti’s explosive ideas Balla threw in his lot with Futurism art style in 1910 and co-signed the definitive version of its Futurist Manifesto. In his paintings Balla created a pictorial depiction of light, movement and speed. Moreover Balla was teaching in Rome two of the younger generation Futurist artists Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini.
* At the bottom biography facts & art links for Giacomo Balla; – the editor.
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Balla: ‘Flight of the Swallows’, oil painting 1913 |
GIACOMO BALLA, artist quotes on painting and life in Italian Futurism
- In the evening I study a fair (preparing his later painting ‘Luna park in Paris’, he made in 1900, fh)… …if you could see the pomp and luxury of the merry-go-round and the stands and booths. Everything is decorated in Baroque-style, all gold and silver; there are mirrors, fabrics, and electric lightning. By night the whole thing is fantastic and rowdy. First of all I shall make a small picture and some drawings for illustrations.
* Balla, source of his quote: ‘Giacomo Balla (1871 – 1951)’, ed. Fagiolo dell’Arco, exh. catalogue, Galleria Nationale d’Arte Moderna, Rome, 1971)
- It (the photo of a moving girl by Jules-Etienne Marey, showed at the 1900 Exposition Universelle and seen there by Balla, fh) will interest artists because, in it, I have made a special study of the way of walking of this girl, and, in fact, I have succeeded in giving the illusion that she is in the process of moving forward.
* Balla’s art quote on painting movement as a Futurist concept: ‘Lista”, Balla, catalogue raisonné, Edizione Galleria Fonte d’Abisso, Modena, 1982, p. 248
- They (his former pupils / the young Futurist painters Boccioni and Severini, fh) did not want anything to do with me in Paris and they were right: they have gone much further than I, but I will work and I too will progress.
* Balla, source of his quote referring to Boccioni and Severini, both Futurism painters:from a letter; Balla was quoted by Umberto Boccioni to Gino Severini, Jan. 1913; as quoted in “Futurism”, ed. By Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 248
- Use materials (with materials Balla means here clothes, fh) with forceful MUSCULAR colours – the reddest of reds, the most purple of purples, the greenest of greens, intense yellows, orange, vermillion – and SKELETON tones of white, grey and black.
* Balla, painter statement on how using colors: unpublished ‘Futurist Manifesto of Men’s clothing’, Balla, dedicated to Marinetti, 1914; as quoted in “Futurism”, ed. By Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 148
- And we must invent dynamic designs to go with them and express them in equally dynamic shapes: triangles, cones, spirals, ellipses, circles, etc.
* Balla, statement on Futurist principle of painting dynamic movement in modern life: unpublished ‘Futurist Manifesto of Men’s clothing’, Balla, dedicated to Marinetti, 1914; as quoted in “Futurism”, ed. By Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 148
We hope you enjoyed
Balla’s artist quotes
editor, Fons Heijnsbroek
translation, Anne Porcelijn
Giacomo Balla, art links for biography facts and art images of the Italian painter in Futurism
* many pictures of Giacomo Balla’s futuristic painting art, on Google
* short biography of Italian artist Giacomo Balla creating in Futurism style, by Guggenheim museum
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