Giacomo Balla: Universe of Light

Giacomo Balla: Universe of Light - THE EXHIBITION

Among the many ventures that 20th-century Italian art has brought forth, few are as fascinating and radical as that of Giacomo Balla (Turin, 1871 – Rome, 1958). His artistic quest, traversing styles, techniques, and aesthetic revolutions, never lost its central theme: light as a living energy, a force that shapes and makes the invisible visible.

It is precisely this "universe of light" that the new retrospective at the Palazzo del Governatore in Parma aims to illuminate. The exhibition features a collection of over 60 works from the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GNAM) in Rome, presenting them to the public in their full power and vitality.

Giacomo Balla: Biography and Creative Trajectory

Born in Turin in 1871, the only child of Lucia Giannotti and Giovanni, an amateur chemist, Balla was orphaned early by his father. His mother dedicated herself to his education.

From a young age, he showed an artistic inclination, initially studying music before quickly moving on to drawing and painting. He attended the Accademia Albertina and, interestingly, also took courses in anthropology and psychiatry. In 1895, he moved to Rome, where he would live for most of his life.

From Divisionism to Futurism

In his early career, Balla embraced Divisionism, adopting a chromatic language that broke down light into visual fragments. This involved dotted brushstrokes and luminous superimpositions—a sensibility that observed reality but filtered it through an intimately sensitive lens.

Over time, he became decisively linked to Futurism, signing the Manifesto of the Futurist Painters and Futurist Painting in 1910 alongside Marinetti, Boccioni, Carrà, and Russolo.

During these years, his work was consumed by the desire to visually express movement, rhythm, and the energy of modern life. Opposed to stasis and inertia, Balla and the Futurists sought a dynamic, Dionysian art that captured the flow—as if light itself could move through time and space.

Later Experimentation

Towards the 1930s and beyond, Balla refused to be constrained by labels. While maintaining his interest in light and movement, he introduced both figurative and geometric elements, experimenting with new ways of seeing and oscillating between abstraction and representation.

Giacomo Balla: The Works that Illuminate the Journey

The Parma exhibition is more than just a display; it's a luminous map tracing every phase of Giacomo Balla's career, from his early painting to Futurism and beyond.

The journey begins with works such as Nello specchio (In the Mirror) (1901–02) and Ritratto della madre (Portrait of the Mother) (c. 1902), which attest to the young Balla's realistic and intimate roots.

The path then crosses through his period of maximum Futurist expression, where masterpieces like Espansione dinamica + velocità N. 9 (Dynamic Expansion + Speed No. 9) (c. 1913) emerge, embodying the pure thrust toward kinetic light.

Visitors will also encounter works donated by his daughters, Elica and Luce Balla, such as La pazza (The Madwoman) (1905), and the triptych Campagna romana (Roman Countryside) (1956). The selection also includes later works from the 20th century, culminating in La fila per l’agnello (The Line for the Lamb) (1942), a symbol of a more meditative and almost lyrical phase.

The exhibition is organized into 13 rooms, following a chronological and thematic order, supplemented by photographic, didactic, and documentary materials from the Gigli Archive.

Futurism in Parma: Giacomo Balla Light, Space, Experience

From October 10, 2025, to February 1, 2026, Parma becomes the stage for an extraordinary artistic operation: Balla's public collection, typically housed in Rome, finally leaves its home museum to dialogue with a new location—a city that transforms into a luminous setting.

This initiative stems from a memorandum of understanding between the Municipality of Parma and the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, with the contribution of the Fondazione Cariparma and the collaboration of Solares Fondazione delle Arti.

The Exhibition Design

The display utilizes the very space of the Palazzo del Governatore as a luminous enclave. The artworks, arranged with balance and rhythm, are paired with elements that contextualize their genesis, ranging from historical-bibliographical documentation to the graphic archive. Every stage of the exhibition invites the visitor to enter a continuum of light, to perceive the sense of movement—not just visual, but almost physical—that runs through Balla’s entire career.

This loan of over 60 works is one of the most significant ever made for the artist outside of the Roman institution. The exhibition is curated by Renata Cristina Mazzantini and Cesare Biasini Selvaggi, with the collaboration of Elena Gigli.

Why the Exhibition is Worth Visiting

This retrospective is not merely a geographical expansion; it's a reaffirmation of meaning. It allows visitors to see Giacomo Balla’s "universe of light" in its entirety, grasping the connections, transformations, continuities, and breaks in his work.

At a time when contemporary art often tends to separate, fragment, and show a piece rather than the whole, the Parma operation restores a unified and powerful narrative. Visiting the exhibition offers a unique opportunity to witness the complete arc of Balla's genius, from his early realism to his radical Futurism and beyond, all through the lens of light as a fundamental, unifying force.

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