Art - Giacomo Balla

Perhaps one of my favourite artists of all time is Giacomo Balla. his fluid movement of brush strokes makes his work abstract, yet realistic at the same time. You can clearly understand the message within each piece, but the images are often so busy, you eyes are left to dart around the piece, giving the illusion of movement. One piece that exaggerates this technique is Flight Of The Swallows.



Flight Of The Swallows is an image of the swallows that used to swirl and dive around outside Balla's window. The formation of one swallow following the other image, gives the idea that it is in fact one bird and his position has moved - much like a fast action camera, and the images have been collated. Balla has captured the iconic shape of the swallows without having to dilute the power of the image with too much detail. The strong bold swift brush movements highlight the movement of the birds and what the artist was seeing outside his window. The only aspect about this image which I dislike, is the white waves across the centre of the image. I feel that the white takes away from the swallows themselves and breaks up the image too much. However I can see that the waves only extenuate the movement further and also lighten up the image - as too much heavy black blocks would create a dark image.