World of colour: Rome opens Futurist home of Giacomo Balla

Giacomo Balla’s home opens to the public for the first time.

Rome celebrates the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Italian painter and Futurist master Giacomo Balla by opening his former home to the public for the first time.

Casa Balla, the painter’s kaleidoscopic vision of art and color on Via Oslavia, finally comes to light after being closed for 30 years.

Its opening is thanks to a collaboration between MAXXI, the National Museum of 21st-Century Arts, and Rome’s special superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Landscape, supporting the Italian culture ministry and the Bank of Italy.

Parallel to the opening of Casa Balla, MAXXI will stage an exhibition dedicated to the artist, a key exponent of the Italian Futurist movement, whose paintings depicted light, movement, and speed.

The MAXXI show will include tapestries, drawings, sketches, furniture, and furnishings originally displayed at Casa Balla, alongside eight new productions by contemporary international architects, artists, and designers.

Born in Turin in 1871, Balla lived and worked in his extraordinary Roman home from 1929 until he died in 1958. His daughters Luce and Elica, also painters, stayed living in the house until the 1990s.

Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, MAXXI art director and curator of the project, explains: “The house with its decorations, furniture, works of art expresses the artist’s personality in all its forms and represents one of his greatest masterpieces.”

The MAXXI exhibition opens on 17 June, while Balla’s home will be open on weekends starting from Friday 25 June (reservations required via MAXXI website). Both Casa Balla and the MAXXI show will stay open until 21 November.

Photos M3Studio Courtesy Fondazione MAXXI © GIACOMO BALLA, by SIAE 2021.