London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

An Italian Futurist’s Kaleidoscopic Apartment Welcomes Visitors Into a Vibrant World of Color

An Italian Futurist’s Kaleidoscopic Apartment Welcomes Visitors Into a Vibrant World of Color

After a meticulous restoration, the extraordinary former apartment of Italian artist Giacomo Balla is opening to the public for the first time in Rome.

At Rome’s National Museum of 21st Century Art (MAXXI), an exhibition devoted to Italian futurist Giacomo Balla offers the rare chance to step inside the early 20th-century painter’s creative universe-more specifically, his former home. As part of the MAXXI exhibit, which celebrates the 15oth anniversary of Balla’s birth, visitors can reserve a tour of the wildly colorful Roman apartment, which is dubbed Casa Balla.



Italian artist Giacomo Balla’s former family apartment is open to the public through November 21, 2021, as part of the MAXXI’s Casa Balla: From the House to the Universe and Back exhibition.

Just a 22-minute walk from the museum, on the fourth floor of a Via Oslavia building in Rome’s Della Vittoria district, a door with a metal plaque announcing Futur Balla opens to a whimsical world of bold pattern, color, and light. Casa Balla’s entrance hall vividly conveys the idea that this is a different kind of family home-one dedicated not just to art, but to vibrant spaces that break down the boundaries between art and daily life.



Inside Casa Balla, even practical storage spaces serve as vehicles to introduce more color and beauty to the interiors. In the hallway, overhead lights are shaded by acrylic clouds designed by Balla.

In a 1915 manifesto titled "Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe" that Balla coauthored with Italian painter Fortunato Depero, the prominent Italian futurist introduces the concept of living life itself as "a total work of art"-something that Balla achieved in his family’s home.



The living room, which is crowded with easels to display the family’s artworks, became a veritable showroom for Balla’s futurist universe. Every decorative detail-down to the sofas, upholstery, and lilac-painted floor tiles-was conceived and built by Balla, his wife, and his daughters.



This corridor, which Balla called the Studiolo Rosso, was used as a painting studio and study. The dizzying pattern repeated across the walls, ceiling, and bookcase depicts the dynamism of speed-a theme that early 20th-century Italian futurists returned to repeatedly.

Balla moved into the apartment in 1929 with his wife, Elisa, and their two young daughters, Elica and Luce, both of whom were also painters. But instead of merely living and working within the walls of the typical, upper-middle class flat, the family used it as a dynamic, inhabitable canvas for art-painting the walls, designing and building furniture, and creating their own imaginative floor tiles, carpets, upholstery, light fixtures, and dishes.



In Luce Balla’s room, harmonious colors and lively patterns reflect the presence of a creative family. Her own figurative landscape painting comfortably coexists with the furniture, rug, lighting, and acrylic vase designed by her father.



In the kitchen, a set of painted wooden chairs around the table include geometric details.

Walking through the apartment, Balla’s intention to infuse daily life with art is abundantly clear. In the hallways, patterned murals wrap up the walls and across the ceilings, while hanging light fixtures are adorned with fanciful clouds cut from plexiglass. Carpets designed and hooked at Casa Balla add symmetrical arabesques and swirls of rich color to Luce and Elica’s rooms-the former of which is anchored by a graceful, branch-like chandelier. Nothing seems to have been ignored as a potential delivery system for the futurist’s ideal: the boldly patterned crockery, the clashing colors of the upholstered furniture-even the cabinet pulls and coat hooks have been altered and made beautiful.



An angular smoking table in the living room and gallery offers several functional surfaces to hold tobacco and ashtrays and is decorated by a screen embroidered with fanciful swirls of smoke.



A corner of Elica’s bedroom and studio features a rug and velvet patchwork chair designed by Balla, as well as a portrait painted by her sister, Luce. Only the classic terrazzo floors hint at the home’s relationship to the rest of the neighborhood’s Art Deco apartment buildings.

To coincide with Casa Balla’s opening to the public, the MAXXI is hosting a major exhibition, dubbed Casa Balla: From the House to the Universe and Back. Curators Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and Domitilla Dardi commissioned eight contemporary works from artists inspired by Giacomo Balla and his Casa Balla, which create a visual dialogue alongside additional drawings, sketches, and objects by the Italian futurist.



In his quest to achieve a totality of art, Balla rejected the dull everyday clothes of early 20th-century Italy and instead made colorful and asymmetrical fashions.



Giacomo Balla lived and worked at the Via Oslavia apartment from 1929 until his death in 1958. His daughters Luce and Elica (left to right) continued to look after Casa Balla until the early 1990s. In 2004, Rome’s Special Superintendence of Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape acquired the apartment for a careful restoration.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
×