Giacomo Balla, a universe of light. The collection of the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art from October 10, 2025, to February 1, 2026 will bring together for the first time, outside the Roman headquarters, in the halls of the Palazzo del Governatore in Parma, all the works and masterpieces of the great artist kept in the museum of the capital. This is a significant loan, of over 60 works, from the most complete public collection of Giacomo Balla's research path, never before exhibited in its entirety.

Among the most "revolutionary" artists of the twentieth century, so much so that he was recognized as the "Leonardo da Vinci of the twentieth century" – as he liked to define himself – Giacomo Balla (Turin, 1871-Rome, 1958) will be celebrated in Parma with an unprecedented retrospective. Painter of light as he was already defined in 1908, light has always been his source of inspiration, the subject and at the same time the object of a passionate investigation pursued throughout his life without interruption.

The exhibition, realized and co-organized by the Municipality of Parma and the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, which will also present to the public the results of recent studies and insights on the surprising collection, is curated by Cesare Biasini Selvaggi and Renata Cristina Mazzantini with the collaboration of Elena Gigli, the contribution of Fondazione Cariparma and the Emilia Romagna Region and the collaboration of Solares Fondazione delle Arti. 

The exhibition is based in particular on the substantial and representative nucleus of works coming from the generous donation of the artist's daughters, Elica and Luce Balla, with the enlightened integration of selected paintings and drawings, as indicated by Luce Balla herself, by Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco, a great scholar of the artist, with the collaboration of Elena Gigli.