Giacomo Balla, The idea is born (Sketch), 1920 circa, Oil on panel, 35,8 x 28,6 cm
is proud to present
GIACOMO BALLA
FUTURIST RECONSTRUCTION OF THE UNIVERSE
12 OCTOBER | 2 DECEMBER 2018
GALLERIA BOTTEGANTICA
VIA A. MANZONI 45 - 20121 MILAN
VIA A. MANZONI 45 - 20121 MILAN
From 12TH October to 2ND December 2018 Bottegantica Gallery will host in its exhibition spaces in via Manzoni 45, Milan the exhibition GIACOMO BALLA | FUTURIST RECONSTRUCTION OF THE UNIVERSE, the first event of Modern / Lab, format with which Bottegantica intends to pay homage to the main artistic personalities of the 20th century.
On the occasion of the sixty years since his death, Bottegantica dedicates a retrospective to one of the most important and original exponents of Futurism. This event follows ten years later the famous anthology held at the Palazzo Reale in Milan.
The exhibition, curated by Fabio Benzi, authoritative expert on Futurism and especially Giacomo Balla - of which he is the author of numerous critical texts and monographs -, deepens the Futurist period of the Turin artist - Roman by adoption -, paying particular attention to his activity in the applied arts and furniture sectors, where he works with great skill and invention to the point of anticipating many aspects of modern design. One of the many merits of Balla was to have liberated and renewed the concept of avant-garde, extending it beyond the boundaries of the pictorial or sculptural work, eventually coming to create a radically original and innovative language.
In fact, among the futurists, he alone succeeded in creating completely this welding thinking of expanding the aesthetic concept from painting to dress, furnishing, design, theater, cinema, architecture, to an idea of "total art.
On the occasion of the sixty years since his death, Bottegantica dedicates a retrospective to one of the most important and original exponents of Futurism. This event follows ten years later the famous anthology held at the Palazzo Reale in Milan.
The exhibition, curated by Fabio Benzi, authoritative expert on Futurism and especially Giacomo Balla - of which he is the author of numerous critical texts and monographs -, deepens the Futurist period of the Turin artist - Roman by adoption -, paying particular attention to his activity in the applied arts and furniture sectors, where he works with great skill and invention to the point of anticipating many aspects of modern design. One of the many merits of Balla was to have liberated and renewed the concept of avant-garde, extending it beyond the boundaries of the pictorial or sculptural work, eventually coming to create a radically original and innovative language.
In fact, among the futurists, he alone succeeded in creating completely this welding thinking of expanding the aesthetic concept from painting to dress, furnishing, design, theater, cinema, architecture, to an idea of "total art.
Giacomo Balla, Paravento (Screen), 1916-1917, Oil on boards, 124 x 115,5 cm
Giacomo Balla, Paravento (Screen), 1916-1917, Oil on boards, 124 x 115,5 cm
After his adherence to Futurism in 1910, Balla goes through a period of long and introverted experimentation with new styles and avant-garde contents. Giacomo Balla, after some tests that alternately approach him to the chronophotography and to the photodynamics of Bragaglia, in order to represent the movement and dynamism, finally arrives, in 1913, to a mature and very original version of Futurism, through the elaboration of the cycles of the Iridescent Compenetrations and above all of the Abstract Velocities, which consecrate him as one of the most autonomous and original voices of the movement.
Later, around 1915, the artist developes an increasingly autonomous language in the field of Futurism, abandoning also the decomposed brushstroke (still a divisionism matrix) which constitutes the last link with that "congenital complementarism" enunciated in the Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting (1910), still present - for example - in the Abstract Velocities up to the Cycle of Mercury passes in front of the sun (1914): a sign that from brushstroke tâche (as we can see in the works of 1910 - early 1913) becomes stringy and extremely innervated, even sharp in the dynamic emphasis, which nevertheless still constituted a link with his past experiences of the first decade of the century and with those initially adopted also by his Futurist comrades.
The innovative adoption also of industrial glazes, or of polished watercolor inks, in addition to the more classical techniques (oil or tempera), not only expresses a tension towards the modernity of the materials, but it confers to the paintings of that time a chromatic brilliance unusual, realizing uniform and synthetic backgrounds of color, interpenetrating shapes and cutting speed.
The artworks of that year (1915) are also the "plastic complexes" (unfortunately lost), pure and "anti-atmospheric" structures, combinations of three-dimensional elements (mirrors, wires, cartoons, tinfoil) that sublimate the concept of the polymerization of Boccioni, freeing him from the physical and iconographic reference, carrying out dynamism in a purely abstract and rhythmic sense; as well as the extraordinary series of "interventionist" paintings (1915) is characterized by pure and enamelled colors, sinuous and geometrical shapes, with no more evidence of natural forms. Giacomo Balla, in fact, defines himself as "Futurist Abstractist" in the Manifesto of the futurist reconstruction of the universe, signed together with Depero at the beginning of 1915.
Later, around 1915, the artist developes an increasingly autonomous language in the field of Futurism, abandoning also the decomposed brushstroke (still a divisionism matrix) which constitutes the last link with that "congenital complementarism" enunciated in the Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting (1910), still present - for example - in the Abstract Velocities up to the Cycle of Mercury passes in front of the sun (1914): a sign that from brushstroke tâche (as we can see in the works of 1910 - early 1913) becomes stringy and extremely innervated, even sharp in the dynamic emphasis, which nevertheless still constituted a link with his past experiences of the first decade of the century and with those initially adopted also by his Futurist comrades.
The innovative adoption also of industrial glazes, or of polished watercolor inks, in addition to the more classical techniques (oil or tempera), not only expresses a tension towards the modernity of the materials, but it confers to the paintings of that time a chromatic brilliance unusual, realizing uniform and synthetic backgrounds of color, interpenetrating shapes and cutting speed.
The artworks of that year (1915) are also the "plastic complexes" (unfortunately lost), pure and "anti-atmospheric" structures, combinations of three-dimensional elements (mirrors, wires, cartoons, tinfoil) that sublimate the concept of the polymerization of Boccioni, freeing him from the physical and iconographic reference, carrying out dynamism in a purely abstract and rhythmic sense; as well as the extraordinary series of "interventionist" paintings (1915) is characterized by pure and enamelled colors, sinuous and geometrical shapes, with no more evidence of natural forms. Giacomo Balla, in fact, defines himself as "Futurist Abstractist" in the Manifesto of the futurist reconstruction of the universe, signed together with Depero at the beginning of 1915.
Giacomo Balla, Interpenetration leaves + sky + light, 1929
Giacomo Balla, Balfiore - project for futurist scarf, c. 1925
Giacomo Balla, Pattern for a plate, 1930, Tempera on paper, 410 x 410 mm
Giacomo Balla, Pattern for a plate, 1930, Tempera on paper, 410 x 410 mm
For further information,
please contact:
Valerio Rossi
Gallery Manager
Via Manzoni 45
20121 Milan, Italy
Cell. +39 3464179755
Tel. +39 0235953308
info@bottegantica.com
please contact:
Valerio Rossi
Gallery Manager
Via Manzoni 45
20121 Milan, Italy
Cell. +39 3464179755
Tel. +39 0235953308
info@bottegantica.com