Photo By Gail

After an extended stay in Paris in 1900, Giacomo Balla (1871 – 1958) became increasingly interested in depicting the dynamism of modern life. The focus on motion, speed, and technology that characterize his subsequent work was central to the Futurist movement, whose tenets Italian poet, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti set forth in his 1909 Manifesto of Futurism.

The following year, Balla wrote Manifesto of Futurist Painting with fellow Italian artists Carlo Carra, Luigi Russolo, and his former students, Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini, who likewise aimed to express the energetic spirit of the time.

The influence of Cubism on the aesthetic language of Futurism is evident in Pleasing Numbers (1919), whose composition is made up of interlocking planes. However, the horizontal format and undulating shapes that appear to hurtle across Balla’s canvas emphasize the Futurist ideals of forward motion and progress.

Photographed in the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA) in Los Angeles.