Giacomo Balla : The Avant-Garde Style

The volume is dedicated to one of the leading figures of Italian Futurism: Giacomo Balla. Through a significant selection of works from the Laura Biagiotti Collection and the Biagiotti Cigna Foundation, the book conveys the artist’s innovative force, capturing his ability to translate the dynamism, light, and energy of modernity into images.

Two hundred works — including paintings, crafted objects, garments, and design pieces — illustrate the output of the Futurist master who, together with Fortunato Depero, theorised the Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe in 1915. Pursuing the idea of “total art” and aiming to break down hierarchies between disciplines, Balla extended his visual vocabulary — from the wedges and vortices of “car speed” to the abstract arabesques of “states of mind” — from painting into interiors and objects.

Using the same formal language, he applied his vision to furniture, furnishings, and even fashion, transforming everyday life through dynamism.

Balla’s work attracted the interest of the prominent entrepreneur and fashion designer Laura Biagiotti, who, together with her husband Gianni Cigna, began in 1986 to acquire works and objects by the artist, creating one of the most remarkable monographic private collections.

The essays included in the volume explore both Balla’s artistic practice and the collecting context from which the exhibited works originate. Organised into five sections, they highlight the diversity of languages and experiments developed by the artist.

The book is completed by a concise biographical profile, offering a clear overview of Balla’s career within the broader landscape of the Italian avant-garde.

Text in English and Italian.