Biography of Balla

(born, Torino 1871 — died, Roma 1958)

Giacomo Balla was born in Turin, in the Piedmont region of Italy, on July 18, 1871. His father was a industrial chemist. When Giacomo was a child, he studied music and learned to love it. When he was 9, his father died, and his passion for music died. He began working in a lithograph print shop. By the time he turned 20, he decided to study painting at local academies and exhibited some of his early works. After he finished at the University of Turin, he moved to Rome in 1895. He met and married Elisa Marcucci. For several years he worked as an illustrator and caricaturist in Rome. His work was shown at the Venice Biennale in 1899, and was displayed at major Italian exhibitions in Rome and Venice., Berlin, Germany, Salon d'Automnein Paris and other different galleries. In 1900, Balla spent 9 months in Paris. There he discovered the existential space of metropolis on the light flooded and crowded nightly boulevards. In 1910, Balla wrote the 'Manifesto dei pittori futuristi' and the 'Manifesto tecnico della pittura futurista' together with Boccioni, Carra, Severini, and Russolo. Balla started experimenting with objects made of materials such as cardboard, fabric, aluminum foil, colored glass, and mirrors. After this experimenting, Balla became one of the co-founders of abstract sculpture. He moved away from Futurism and in 1937, he returned to representational art. Giacomo Balla died on March 1, 1958 in Rome, Italy.




Sources used:
http://impressionistsgallery.co.uk/artists/Artists/abc/Balla/biography.html
http://www.giacomo-balla.com/