Giacomo Balla was born in Turin in 1874.

Self-taught, but certainly influenced by the manner of Giacomo Grosso (Cambiano 1860 – Turin 1938), he debuted as a verista painter and sketched small genre scenes in Rome, where he moved in1895.

After a trip to Paris in 1900, he adhered to Divisionism; the painting “Fallimento” (Failure) of 1902 is famous from this period.

But Divisionism was not a rigid norm for Giacomo Balla and he alternated between purely chromatic and strong plastic and graphic interests.

Around 1909-10 he switched to the Futurist movement in which he played a major part. Around 1922, however, he returned to alternating the modes of Futurism with works of a luministic naturalism, with a generically impressionistic execution. This latter approach prevailed definitively after 1945.

Giacomo Balla died in Rome in 1958.