A brief montage of works by Giacomo Balla.
As the title suggest more than 40 works to see in less than one minutes time!
Giacomo Balla was born in Turin, Italy in 1871. He was known for his use of abstract and organic shapes as well as dynamic realism. He was very well schooled in drawing, but could make exciting drawings and paintings as he had a very unique way of capturing the movement and pattern of light. For instance the streetlight. He takes time to record every color that the possible spectator might see whilst looking up. Greens, reds, and yellows are all represented.
He came from a well to do family whose father was a chemist. As a child Balla studied music. Until the age of nine when his father died. He gave up music and began to express himself via music. For his collegiate studies the artist attended the University of Turin.
When he was in his twenties the artist was given exhibitions and shown in museums. The artist having the most influence on him was Filippo Marinetti. Marinetti is seen as the father of Futurism. An art movement that dealt with explaining what would happen in the future. Below is great example of Marinetti’s work which reminds this viewer of the master collage artist Kurt Schwitters.
Price range information: The artist worked in many mediums. Pencils range from $2,500 to $250,000. Serigraph prints range from $500 to $2000. Oils are the highest priced works ranging from $5,000 to $4.0 million dollars! Pastels can range as high $60,000. Many small sculptures and jewelry works are found for less than $500.
My favorite piece of artwork produced by the art is titled Dog on a leash. What movement not only by the dog, but also by the person’s feet and even the dog’s leash. The artist is usually listed as a futurist style artist, but he is just such a master at creating movement. I feel as if the dog is going to scurry right off the page. The dog is taking the owner for a walk, not vice-a-versa!
Another artist that did a great job capturing movement was Al Hirschfeld was my favorite caricature artist. He drew great simple caricatures of celebrities and actors using ink on rice paper. Working in lithography for the most part the artist had a great life as an artist living nearly to nearly one hundred years. This picture below is of the 1940s thru 1960s star Danny Kaye. Kaye was always moving and dancing in the movies that made him famous and Hirschfeld did a great job capturing this.
One artist making wonderful works capturing movement in oils would be Robert Liberace. Liberace makes wonderful Renaissance looking type art usually featuring one lone figure moving across the picture plane. I love his style for his end compositions and movement of objects across the picture plane. He is able to establish a great amount of depth which is tough to achieve on such small sized works. Here is a great example of Robert Liberace’s style of art. He has some great dvds out on drawing using classical methods and techniques.
Balla passed away in 1958 at the age of 86 years old! I enjoy this artist for his awesome and wonderful moving images of the human figure.
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