Mare velivolato

This is one of the tapestries – actually oils on tapestry canvas – that Balla displayed at the “Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industrielles Modernes” in Paris in 1925, where Prampolini and Depero were also present. At that time the work was entitled “Mer, voiles, vent” (Sea, sails, wind). In 1986 it reappeared as Mare velivolato and dated 1925. Signed “Futur Balla” at the lower right, this was part of a series of marine/sailing scenes that Balla executed starting in 1919, to which he gave such titles as “Futurlibecciata”, “Marvento”, “Marombra”, “Decormare”, “Linee forza di mare”, “Mare-cielo-vele”, and “Vele e onde”. The fanciful pseudo-frame of this tapestry-painting, which frames the view, is also found in some of the foregoing paintings, such as “Futurlibecciata” and “Vele e onde”; in these, however, the forms framing the sea scene blend more fully into the movement of the sea, whereas in the work shown here they are more like a real frame, though a ragged one. Over the waves, outlined by blue and pinkish-brown curves, there sway the soft, wind-puffed curves of the sails, while the sky is shot through by “lines of force” fanning out as though to suggest the harmonious, vertiginous dance of the gusts of wind. This gay, lively rhythm is underscored , in its opening-up to the light, by the deep black of the zig-zagging frame.