BALLA, GIACOMO

born July 24, 1871, Turin, Italy died March 1958, Rome Italian artist and founding member of the Futurist movement in painting. Largely self-taught, Balla was greatly influenced by French Neo-Impressionism (or Pointillism) during a sojourn he made in Paris in 1900. Upon his return to Rome, he adopted Pointillism and imparted that style to two younger artists, Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini. Like them, Balla gradually came under the influence of the Milanese poet Filippo Marinetti, who in 1909 launched the literary movement he called Futurism, an attempt to revitalize Italian culture by embracing the power of modern science and technology. In 1910 Balla and other Italian artists published the Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting. Balla took no further part in Futurist activities until 191213, however. Unlike most Futurists, Balla was a lyrical painter, unconcerned with modern machines or violence. The Street LightStudy of Light (1909; Museum of Modern Art, New York City), for example, is merely a dynamic depiction of light. One of his best-known works, Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash (1912; Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Buffalo), illustrates his principle of simultaneityi.e., the rendering of motion by simultaneously showing many aspects of a moving object. During World War I Balla composed a series of paintings in which he attempted to convey the impression of movement or velocity through the use of planes of colour; these works are perhaps the most abstract of all Futurist paintings. After World War I he remained faithful to the Futurist style long after its other practitioners had abandoned it. Gradually, however, he reverted to a more traditional style.