Works on paper by major Italian Futurists, including Spessori di Spazio + Linee Andamentali (depths of space and lines of movement [around 1913]) by Giacomo Balla, are due to go under the hammer during Dorotheum’s November auction week. Born in Turin in 1871, Balla began as a painter of traditional portraits and landscapes before devoting himself to Futurism in 1910. That year, he signed the movement’s manifesto, describing “the persistency of an image upon the retina” by which “moving objects constantly multiply themselves; their form changes like rapid vibrations”. In attempting to translate speed and sound into paint, the majority of Balla’s Futurist works verge on, or fall completely into, abstraction. In this oil on paper work (est €80,000-€120,000), Balla sought to create a sense of motion through repeated forms.
Modern Art, Dorotheum, Vienna
24 November
