Giacomo Balla

Giacomo Balla (18 July 1871 – 1 March 1958) was an Italian painter, art teacher and poet best known as a key proponent of Futurism. In his paintings, he depicted light, movement and speed. He was concerned with expressing movement in his works, but unlike other leading futurists he was not interested in machines or violence with his works tending towards the witty and whimsical.

Giacomo Balla was born in Turin, in the Piedmont region of Italy, on 18 July 1871. He was the son of Giovanni Balla, a chemist with an interest in photography, and Lucia Balla. His father died in 1878, after which Balla went to work in a lithography shop to help support his mother.

By age 20, his interest in visual art had developed to such a level that he decided to study painting at local academies, and several of his early works were shown at exhibitions. Following academic studies at the University of Turin, Balla moved to Rome in 1895, where he met and later married Elisa Marcucci. For several years he worked in Rome as an illustrator, caricaturist and portrait painter.