Giacomo Balla

Born in 1871, Giacomo Balla was the senior member of the first wave of Futurist painters and was a teacher (Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini were pupils). His early, pre-Futurist period was influenced by the pointillism of Georges Seurat. In 1912 he joined the Futurist movement. His painting style underwent a dramatic change about 1909 when he became preoccupied with the pictorial depiction of light, movement and speed. In his work to 1914 he decomposed movement and light but his compositions moved ever closer to total abstraction as, for example, with Perils of War (1915). By 1914 Balla was advocating a Futurist lifestyle - he even named his two daughters Propeller and Light - and his energies expanded to include sculpture and the applied arts, especially costume and theatre design. In the Twenties, during the so-called second wave of Futurism, Balla was still a compelling force within the ranks of the new, young Futurists. Gradually giving more value to geometric forms, his style regularly alternated between abstract machine-like constructions and figurative representations. Giacomo Balla died in 1958.

FACTS What can be seen in the picture (what is it of?) What is its title? Who was the artist? When was the picture made? Did the artist belong to any particular group? Was there any important event in the artist’s life or in history around the time the artist lived that may have influenced the way the artist thought and worked?

PROCESS What medium has been used? (Oil paint, watercolour, pencil, charcoal?) What techniques have been used? (Thick paint, heavy brushstrokes, brushstrokes going in certain directions, light paint strokes, soft washes of colour, dark tones, light tones, bright colours, dark colours?)

FORM How is the picture composed? How are the main shapes arranged? How has the artist used line, colour and texture? Are any shapes repeated? Are there curves, spirals, sharp shapes, angular forms? Why might the artist do this? Are any areas distorted deliberately? If so, why do you think the artist did this?

MOOD What is the mood of the picture? What feelings and emotions are suggested in the work? (Is it happy, sad, peaceful, lively does it create an anxious feeling?) How has the artist created the mood?