Italy: Rome opens home of Futurist painter Giacomo Balla

Rome: 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, after being closed up for 30 years.

Casa Balla, the painter’s kaleidoscopic vision of art and colour on Via Oslavia, opened in June with visits up to November.

Due to popular demand (the visits sold-out), MAXXI has arranged for Casa Balla to open again, from 2-31 December.

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, with the support of the Italian culture ministry and the Bank of Italy.

Born in Turin in 1871, Balla lived and worked in his extraordinary Roman home from 1929 until his death 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.”