A painter, sculptor, stage designer, and wordsmith, Giacomo Balla was a leading exponent of Futurism and an author particularly fond of Divisionism as well. He trained in Turin, where he attended the Accademia Albertina, and in Rome, where he moved permanently in 1893. Adopting the currents of thought of humanitarian socialism and scientific positivism, Balla’s initial focus was on issues such as the urban landscape and living conditions in cities. Belonging to this period are works such as the Ciclo Dei viventi (1902-1905), which draws formal elements from Art Nouveau, verism and neo-Impressionism. With Boccioni and Severini in 1910 he signed the Manifesto of the Futurist Painters and the Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting. From 1912 the artist began to focus on movement studies, with one work among all:  Dinamismo di un cane al guinzaglio (1912). Along with movement studies, “iridescent interpenetrations” also belong to this experimental period.
Balla played a significant role in Futurist demonstrations by designing sets, clothing, costumes, furniture, and plastic complexes. However, his involvement began to diminish with his embrace of Second Futurism in the mid-1920s, a movement towards which Balla held reservations and eventually distanced himself from in pursuit of a naturalistic figurative style. In 1903, he exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the sole edition to feature his non-posthumous works. In 1914 he made the fiori futuristi in the garden of Casa Cuseni in Taormina and he also worked on several wall decorations together with Fortunato Depero. In 1917 he designed the sets for Feu d’artifice, balletto senza danzatori, at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. During the same period, he created furniture, furnishings and textiles, which can be appreciated as complete works of art in Casa Balla at 39, Via Oslavia, Rome. In 1916, he collaborated with Marinetti in the production of the film Futurist Life. Additionally, in October 1918, Balla published the Color Manifesto, offering an insightful analysis of the role of color in avant-garde painting. Lastly, in 1921, he adorned the walls of Bal Tic Tac, a Roman club located near Via Nazionale where jazz music was performed. This club has recently been rediscovered during renovation work on one of the Banca d’Italia buildings. At the end of World War II, in 1946, some of Balla’s works, including Dinamismo di un cane al guinzaglio were exhibited by MoMA on the occasion of the exhibition Twentieth-Century Italian Art.
Giacomo Balla’s production, although briefly linked to the Fascist Regime, went through different experimental periods: from figuration, to Futurism, Divisionism, and Abstractionism. His works are held in major national and international institutions: the Gallery of Modern Art in Milan, MoMA in New York, The Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art in London, the Museo del Novecento in Milan, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice and the Tate Gallery in London.