© 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome
Currently not on view
Vortex with Radiations,
1913–14
Giacomo Balla, Italian, 1871 - 1958
2004-54
The eldest and most versatile of the Italian Futurists—whose art championed the subjects of technology and speed—Balla was also the first to experiment with pure abstraction, translating his observations of movement (scampering dachshunds, rotating tires, swooping birds) into a language that celebrated the dynamism of motion, light, and sound. This gestural drawing explores the vortex and relates to several paintings and assemblages (called "plastic complexes") carried out by Balla in 1913–14.
Information
Title
Vortex with Radiations
Dates
1913–14
Maker
Medium
Graphite on off-white wove paper
Dimensions
42.5 x 63 cm (16 3/4 x 24 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Sylvia and Joseph Slifka in honor of Frederick R. and Jan Perry Mayer
Object Number
2004-54
Signatures
Signed in graphite, lower right [next to the artist’s Pugno di Boccioni stamp]: FUTUR BALLA
Marks/Labels/Seals
Watermark: PM / Fabriano (twice); Nettunia under S-shaped sea serpent (twice)
Culture
Type
Materials
Subject
Private collection; sale, Sotheby’s, London, June 29, 1994, lot 202 (as Composizione Futurista), bought in; Sylvia and Joseph Slifka, New York;
- "Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2004," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 64 (2005): p. 91-135., p. 110
- Laura Giles, Lia Markey, Claire Van Cleave, et. al., Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2014)., p. 138, cat. no. 56 (illus.); p. 228, app. no. 9 (illus.)
