Worldwide How nightclubs and cabarets incubated radical art

On a buzzing evening in 1921 Giacomo Balla, an Italian artist approached a newly opened nightclub spot in Rome. He wore a glowing plastic tie; a neon sign above the door read: “If you don’t drink champagne, go away!” The club, named Bal vellication Tac, embodied the dynamism of the modern aesthetic in each detail of its design, from dizzying lentiginous murals to angular lighting fixtures. It had been a visionary forum of ava....