Brief introduction of giacomo balla

Giacomo balla was born in Turin in 65438. He is an Italian painter and the most outstanding figure of futurism. He first appeared as an academic painter and was praised by critics at that time. During his short stay in Paris, he saw Impressionism and Dichotomy, and always showed enthusiastic interest in color and light. After returning to Rome, he visited Sevini and Bochum and told them about his new faith.

Chinese name: giacomo balla.

Mbth: Bala, giacomo

Nationality: Italy

Place of birth: Turin

Date of birth: 187 1 year

Date of death: 1958

Occupation: painter

Major achievements: one of the most outstanding figures of futurism.

Representative works: Laborers' Festival (1903—— 1904) and Street Lamp: Works of Light.

life experience

Giacomo balla 187 1 was born in Turin, and is the oldest artist in the Italian futurism movement. His father is a professional photographer. Influenced by his father, Barra became interested in science and technology. However, he basically had no formal art training and only had a short-term painting class. He first appeared as an academic painter and was praised by critics at that time. During his short stay in Paris, he saw Impressionism and Dichotomy, and always showed enthusiastic interest in color and light. After returning to Rome, he visited Sevini and Bochum and told them about his new faith.

Balayu 1895 left Turin for Rome, where he enthusiastically supported the socialist movement.

1900, he traveled to Paris, during which he came into contact with the works of French impressionist and separatist painters. Separatist painters, including Seurat, tried to make impressionist techniques more scientific. They draw a small spot or a small piece of solid color on the canvas for the audience to enjoy at a certain distance, resulting in a "visual mixture" with a sense of tremor. After returning to Rome, Barra began to try this stippling technique.

In Barra's works, he made no secret of his sympathy for socialism. An obvious example is his famous work Laborers' Festival (1903- 1904). From 65438 to 0909, Barra met Philip tommaso marinetti, the founder, poet and theorist of futurism. Futurist painters are mostly unruly. They deny the past art and advocate that artistic practice should reflect modern characteristics and technological progress, such as cars, planes and cinemas. They try their best to express speed and movement in their works.

1909, Barbara exhibited her works for the first time at the Venice Biennale. In the same year, his first futuristic work, Street Lamp: The Work of Light, came out.

19 10, he and other painters signed the declaration of futuristic painting. Members of this genre also include umberto Bochuni and Gino severini, who have frequented Barra's studio since about 190 1.

Futurist painters use the movements created in oil paintings and sculptures to reflect the vitality of modern times. In order to achieve this goal, Barra looked for sources of inspiration everywhere. Cubism is one of the goals. He appreciated the idea of cubism, abandoned the traditional single perspective, changed his thinking, and looked at an object from multiple angles at the same time. The works of photographers Etienne-Jules Mare and Anton Giulio Bragaglia also greatly inspired Barra. The two photographers tried to show the movement of objects with the skills of exposure time and exposure times. During the experiment, they photographed people or animals in motion continuously or at intervals, and the final images were synthesized on the negative to highlight the impression of motion. Barra's reaction to this is prominently reflected in his work The Power of a Dog on a leash (19 12). The dog's limbs and tail vividly show this intense movement.

At the end of 19 13, Bala's creation becomes more and more graphic and geometric. In his series "The Speed of Abstraction" (1912-1914), the theme has become abstract beyond recognition. Barra tries to show the process of movement, not just to explain a concrete image of the physical world from a single angle at a fixed moment. Among the five signatories of the Manifesto of Futurism Painting, he is the only one who did not attend the Paris exhibition. The significance of his real activism is after watching Sevini's painting "The Expanding Sphere in Space".

19 14 After the outbreak of World War I, Bala's political stance turned to support militarism. Although he was too old to serve, he enthusiastically supported Italy's participation in the war. After the war, he worked in the field of theater and fashion design for several years. 1929, he showed his talents again in the second wave of futurism and was valued by marinetti again. However, in the late 1930s, Barra turned to the creation of portraits and urban landscapes, and supported fascism in World War II. Until his death in 1958.

Style of works

Barra advocates the principle of simultaneous juxtaposition of painting, that is, depicting multiple sides of moving objects and expressing movement and speed in the static form of painting, so that different aspects of vision become a "process of mutual infiltration-simultaneous mixing". Barra pursues expressive movements and speed. In the painting "The Girl Running on the Balcony", he used neo-impressionism stippling and color separation to depict a strong sense of light, and at the same time showed a sense of running movement. In this way, the multiple trajectories left by moving objects in the process of space travel are all contained in a single object, which seems to be the result of multiple shots of a negative. Compared with other young futurist painters, Bala's art is more peaceful and lyrical, without much noise. He cares more about the rhythm of the picture and the abstraction of light and color, and tries to integrate feelings, movements and inner state.

From 19 13 to 19 16, he made a series of works, including Mercury Passing Before the Sun. These works inspired by observing nature are the most abstract works left by futurists. He succeeded in giving emotion, action and mental state a unique and complete form. It can be said that the analysis of futurism and futurism takes him as an example to integrate feelings, actions and mental state into one expression. If we value will rather than results, we should admit that Bala undoubtedly crossed the boundaries of futurism and jumped among the original abstract masters without self-study. Regrettably, this period of real innovation did not cause any repercussions in the world of total war, it only lasted for a short time. His work as a pioneer was almost unknown for a long time, and it was not until the end of the 20th century that he was rediscovered because of exhibitions and very serious publications.

works appreciation

1909, marked by the declaration made by Philip tommaso marinetti in le figaro, the futurism movement officially began. Deeply influenced by the futuristic slogan "Resist the past and value the present", Barra created his first pure futuristic work "Street Lamp: The Work of Light" (1909) in a short time.

In Street Lamps: The Works of Light, Barra focuses on the important symbol of a modern city: the street lamps just introduced in Rome at that time. He emphasized the dazzling brilliance of electric light, giving it almost the same meaning as material existence. The strong light of the electric lamp is in sharp contrast with the pale light of a crescent moon in the upper right corner of the oil painting. Barra sketched the moon in her works, probably referring to marinetti's work Let's Murder Moonlight (1909). With this work, the two hit it off and became new friends of futurism.

At this moment, Barra's creative career has been deeply branded with separatism. He used hundreds of red, yellow and green V-shaped strokes to construct an image around the electric light. The closer to the light source, the more dark red and dark green are diluted and replaced by bright yellow and pure white, giving people a dazzling effect. Several short and scattered strokes outline the surrounding dark area, which surrounds the spherical shape of the electric lamp, further embodying the powerful power of street lighting. You know, "electric light" was a rather modern concept at that time. Street lamp: The work of light is only the first step taken by Barra. In his subsequent creation, he has been trying to express the light through time and space with pictures.

Dynamics of Chained Dogs is Barra's most famous and interesting work, which depicts a fashionable woman in a skirt walking down the street with her pet hound. In order to show the dynamic effect, the artist turned the dog's legs into a series of legs, almost forming a semicircle, which reminds us of the moving wheels involuntarily. Women's feet, skirts and dog chains have also become a series of combinations, leaving a continuous memory of their space travel. Many instantaneous images at different times are condensed on the same screen at the same time, like slow-motion movies and continuous shooting with the same negative. This multi-faceted juxtaposition makes the audience strongly feel the artist's efforts to solve sports problems, although the result of such efforts looks humorous and simple. Reid once commented in his "A Brief History of Modern Painting" that futurists' solutions to sports problems are somewhat naive. "They say that Mercedes-Benz horses have not four legs, but twenty legs, and their movements are triangular. So they draw horses, dogs and people, all of which are drawn as multi-legged things, arranged in a continuous or radial way. "

In the process of expressing the sense of movement and strength, Barra quickly gave up the simple and realistic method used in Dynamics of Tied Dogs and adopted a method close to abstraction. Based on shape and color, he used abstract symbols to construct pictures. Flying Fast, written in 19 13, is such a work. In this painting, the vertical line divides the background into irregular rectangles, and the feathers of birds are neatly arranged together to form a zigzag diagonal. Against them, the arc across the screen left by birds in the foreground looks more vivid. Vertical lines, diagonal lines and various curves compete and depend on each other, and bright red, yellow and white set off and set off each other with calm taupe, giving the work a special sense of strength. Here, Barra transforms the continuity of movement into graphic decoration with abstract factors such as lines, colors and shapes. Of course, this decoration is mainly sporty.