Giacomo BALLA - Flight of swallows (1913)

 

Flight of swallows

1913
Tempera on paper (51x76 cm)
Museum of Modern Art, New York

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We are looking with the painter out of the window, as a flock of swallows swirls by.

The moving image is as if it were fixed in sequence in Giacomo Balla's retina and he has done nothing but bring it back to the paper.

We note the shutter, rigid in its fixed presence, which strongly contrasts with the fluid motion of the swallows.

Between 1912 and 1913, Balla created several works dedicated to swallows and their flight during his stay in the German city of Düsseldorf.

This subject is the perfect manifesto for futurist art dedicated to dynamism and speed, which is considered the maximum expression of the modern world. These futurist ideas were presented in 1010 when Balla signed the futurist manifesto together with Gino Severini, Umberto Boccioni and Carlo Carrà.

The technique used to create the movement is very similar to the frame imprinted on film.

Balla got tired of Futurism and in 1931 he began to devote himself to a more figurative art.

Comparing artists: Boccioni, Braque, Carrà, Catlin, Feininger, Gris, Severini