(Turin 1871–1958 Rome) Linee andamentali, circa 1920, signed Balla, verso inscribed: Linee andamentali Balla, signed by Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco with confirmation of photo certificate by him (Rome, 20.1.1981), hand-written confirmation of the authenticity of the work by Antonio Marasco (Rome, 1970), tempera on card, 80.4 x 17.2 cm, framed, (PP)

Photo certificate: Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco, Rome, 20. 1.1981

Provenance: Galleria Pogliani, Rome (verso 2 stamps and no. 014172, signed by gallery owner with a note about the provenance, Rome, 14.4.1970)
Galleria La Scaletta, S. Polo d’Enza
Private Collection, Italy

We are grateful to Ms Elena Gigli for her kind assistance.

This work belongs to a series of variations on decorative patterns with which Balla experimented after the War in order both to produce actual objects (such as lampshades, tiles, shawls, etc.) and to pursue independent research. The discoveries made during his research, (...) such as the ‘linea di velocità’ [line of speed] and the ‘linea andamentale’ [directional line], are applied for the creation of practical objects in view of the ‘futurist reconstruction of the universe’. Among the motifs used in high-quality works such as the present one are also those representing the sea and sails, spring, and even the ‘idea’ (all these themes were later developed in the paintings executed immediately after the War). (...) It is worth noting that from works like the present one, the great Italian decorative art developed, which was successfully represented in 1925 (with Balla alongside Depero and Prampolini) in the famous exhibition marking the beginning of the international current known as Art Déco. (from the expertise by Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco)
Boccioni’s motif of the fist synthesises a three-dimensional human figure as it runs along a curved line in the act a throwing a punch. The same graphic motif is later used as a logo for all the documents of the Futurist Movement. In the form of an ink stamp, it would subsequently become the ‘mark’ of many of Balla’s works in the 1930s. In the manifesto, ‘Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe’, Balla (along with Depero) signed with the epithet ‘Futurist abstract artist’ and published three sculptures executed in the winter of 1914 that centre on the ideas of movement, transparency and noise as applied to sculpture, according to a concept that foreshadows the research undertaken by Gabo and Pevsner in 1917. Balla persisted in building structures with new, perishable materials such as cardboard, wire, celluloid, wool threads, foil and mirrors. In some photos of the time one can see fantastic assemblies of forms, and Balla’s notebooks contain precious research and notes such as the addresses of the most modern sculptures of his time, such as Archipenko and Exter. ‘Linee di forza del pugno di Boccioni’ [Boccioni’s Fist - Lines of Force] in sculptural form also derived from poor materials: red painted honeycomb cardboard with a wooden core. This sculpture appears for the first time in the magazine ‘Il Futurismo’ (2 October 1932), in a photograph reproducing the interior of Balla’s studio. From 1959 until 1990, the prototype of this sculpture belonged to the Winston-Malbin collection, U.S.A., and was later sold for 2.000.000 US dollars at an extraordinary auction at Sotheby’s New York in May 1990, along with an imposing group of Futurist works from the same collection. In the 1950s, Balla resumed work on the project for this sculpture, this time using a more lasting material than cardboard, namely brass. The year 1940 marked the meeting between Balla and Armando Ricci, whose automobile repair shop was situated in Via Oslavia, where the Balla family had settled in May 1929. An indefatigable experimenter, Balla studied with Armando Ricci the chromatic effect of enamels when they are applied to metallic surfaces, and used this technique to transpose well-known paintings (‘Mare, vele, vento’ [Sea, sails, wind] and ‘Futurlibecciata’). Boccioni’s fist, executed in brass sheet, is redesigned in a second version based on the original graphic sketch and was not completed until 1956, two years before Balla’s death. This brass sculpture appears to have remained in Balla’s house until 1993 and to have been displayed in numerous international exhibitions afterwards. Little remains of Balla’s extensive work as a sculptor. The prototypes of many kinetic sculptures have been destroyed, their construction drawings lost, and the photographic documentation is insufficient for their reconstruction. In 1946, immediately after the war, the Obelisco gallery, curated by Gasparo del Corso and Irene Brin, opened in Rome. Until the end of the 1960s, this gallery was at the centre of cultural life in the capital and promoted not only the protagonists of Italian art such as Morandi, Afro, De Chirico, Capogrossi and Fontana, but also a refined selection of new international proposals showed in Rome and Italy for the first time, such as Magritte, Gorky, Kandinsky, Moore, Calder, Bacon, Dalì, Lam, Dubuffet and many others. Gasparo del Corso, who was passionate about Balla’s life and work, was able to recuperate from the archive of the artist’s daughters, Elica and Luce, the few surviving sketches for sculptures and, with the support of passionate sponsors and the collaboration of Armando Ricci, was responsible for the creation of the nine red enamelled versions of ‘Linee di forza del pugno di Boccioni II’ [Boccioni’s Fist - Lines of Force II], the slimmer version redrafted by Balla in the 1950s. In 1968, all the sculptures were completed and the Obelisco gallery devoted an entire year of its activity to the celebration of Balla’s work. In a series of thematic exhibitions curated by Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco, it explored all the fields of research in which Balla experimented: from painting to sculpture, the theatre and the Futurist reconstruction of the universe. Ten years after Balla’s death, the 24th edition of the Venice Biennale devoted an extensive retrospective to the artist, which displayed all the sculptures executed by the Obelisco gallery. An item from this series belongs today to the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden collection in Washington.