Automaton in action
Giacomo Balla
from February 21st to April 30th 2025
From February 21 to April 30, 2025, the Futurism&Co Art Gallery in Rome presents a series of works made with colored paper collages, which gravitate around the work on silver paper by Giacomo Balla entitled Piedigrotta.
This silver paper collage depicts a sort of automaton in action, made more dynamic both by the collage of triangles and half moons and by the dynamic movement in oil and ink.
It comes from the collection of the dancer and choreographer Leonide Massine and was exhibited with his entire collection, in the foyer of the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, on April 11, 1917.
This work fits well into the research conducted by Giacomo Balla since 1912, when he began to study movement through the running of the little girl on the balcony in the canvas of the Grassi collection in Milan, or the motion of the dog on a leash in the famous work of the Buffalo Museum.
The Piedigrotta collage is presented in the Roman gallery, in via Mario de’ Fiori n.68, by a critical and illustrated text edited by Dr. Elena Gigli, head of the Gigli Archive for the Work of Giacomo Balla.
Four collages of colored papers also made by Giacomo Balla, from 1913 to 1930, gravitate around Piedigrotta: Abstract Speed + Noises, Plastic Noise Baltrrr, Landscape Force Lines + Explosion and finally Autocaffé.
At the same time, other collage works by his friend and student Fortunato Depero are exhibited: Abstract Depero – War, War! and Double Ballerina with Umbrella – Characters for the Nightingale’s Song.
FUTURISM & CO Art Gallery . Via Mario de' Fiori, 68 . Rome, Italy
Opening time: Monday: 14.00 - 19.30 / Tuesday - Saturday: 11.30 - 19.30 / Sundays and holidays only by appointment
A&K S.R.L. - Via Mario de' Fiori, 68 . Rome, Italy
info@futurismandco.com - PEC a-ksrl@legalmail.it - Phones: +39 06 6797382 - +39 339 7945092 (Francesca) - +39 335 5333793 (Alessandro)
P.IVA 14472361006 - C.F. e Iscriz. Reg. Imp. di Roma n. 14472361006 - REA 1523248 - Capitale Sociale € 10.000,00