Giacomo Balla: Turn of the Times

A large oil painting by Giacomo Balla, set to be auctioned at Dorotheum in November, not only reflects the ominous political atmosphere of the 1920s but also impresses with a stylistic innovation that anticipates later artistic movements.

Giacomo Balla’s association with fascism is symptomatic of the complex interplay between art and politics in Italy in the 1920s and 1930s. At the beginning of the dictatorship, Balla, like many other Futurists, enthusiastically embraced the ultranationalist, authoritarian ideology. Enamoured of speed and dynamism, the artist and his Futurist contemporaries saw fascism as a catalyst for modernisation, a definitive break with the past, and the new regime as the logical ally of a movement that praised technological progress and aesthetic
revolution. Over time, however, artists and intellectuals came to realise that fascism brought not hope and change but repression and censorship, shattering the expectations of many who had once seen it as a potential partner in renewal.

Balla conceived Futurismo; Fascismo e Sovversivismo; Fascisti e Antifascisti during the critical years of 1924 and 1925, a crucial period for the final rise of Mussolini’s regime. It was a time marked by events of tremendous historical importance: the assassination of Giacomo Matteotti, secretary of the Unitary Socialist Party; elections marred by widespread fraud and corruption; and, above all, the introduction of “fascist legislation” in 1925 and 1926. The measures brought about a radical transformation, turning Italy into a totalitarian state and irrevocably altering the country’s political and social structures.

It was against this background of profound political tension that Balla’s work was created. Reflected in it are the complexities and contradictions of an era in which Futurism, fascism and opposing forces were intricately, problematically and often paradoxically intertwined. The painting was first exhibited in the Palazzo delle Belle Arti during the Terza Biennale Romana in 1925. Today, exactly a century after its creation, it bears witness to the fears, expectations and hopes of a section of Italian society, making it of particular historical and sociological interest.

The painting’s iconographic composition is marked by a clear polarisation: in the grid on the left, members of the fascist movement are arranged with precise rigour above the Italian flag, evoking an image of order and unity. On the opposite side, Alexander Israel Helphand, known as Parvus, as well as Lenin and Trotsky are depicted with grotesquely distorted faces and threatening expressions. Their eyes, animated by the hammer and sickle symbol, convey unease. Winding through these figures is a mysterious serpent, a powerful metaphor for darkness and suffering, lending the work an intense allegorical symbolism.

The most important aspect of the work, however, lies less in its overtly political iconography than in its idiosyncratic and innovative means of expression: stylistically, Balla’s painting departs radically from the usual dynamic imagery of Futurism, but also from the rigid, conventional canon of Realism typical of totalitarian regimes. This might explain its inclusion in the Biennale Romana, alongside earlier works such as Pessimismo e Ottimismo from (inv. 8162, GNAM Rome) 1923 and Sorge l’idea (inv. 8159, GNAM Rome) from 1920, both currently housed in the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome. In fact, the work seems almost one of a kind, boldly anticipating future trends and introducing elements that would later find full expression in Pop Art. This view is shared by Dr Elena Gigli, curator of the Giacomo Balla Archive, and echoed by art historian Giovanni Lista, who has studied the upper panel of a large enamel painting from the same period (Le mani del popolo italiano) and is likewise impressed by the artist’s pre-Pop visionary approach. Balla’s work from this period is a remarkable example of originality in the avant-garde aesthetic panorama of the 20th century.