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. In 1899, his work was exhibited at the
Venice Biennale, and in the ensuing years, his art was shown at major exhibitions in Rome and Venice, as well as in Munich, Berlin and Düsseldorf, at the
Salon d'Automne in Paris, and at galleries in Rotterdam. Around 1902, he taught
Divisionist techniques to
Umberto Boccioni and
Gino Severini. Influenced by
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Giacomo Balla adopted the
Futurism style, creating a pictorial depiction of light, movement and speed. He was a signatory of the
Futurist Manifesto in 1910. When he joined the futurist movement, he was already an established artist, and was older by a decade than the other signatories of the futurist manifesto. Typical for his new style of painting is
Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash (1912) and his 1914 work
Abstract Speed + Sound (). He authored the "Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto", where he argued that one should attempt to capture "the
dynamic sensation itself". Balla also began working as a sculptor, creating, in 1915, the well-known work titled ''Boccioni's Fist'', based on 'lines of force' (). While initially sympathetic to fascism, he changed his mind, leading him to be shunned by the Italian regime and culture which had once appreciated him, though his works were positively reevaluated after the end of the war. In the 1930s, he renounced Futurism as well as abstraction, and returned to a naturalistic style. He died on 1 March 1958, in Rome. ==Notable works==