As a boy, Massa manifested a definite aptitude for painting and drawing. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts and the University of Rome, where he also learned architecture. Would he become a painter or an architect? L. F. Massa did not betray his disposition for painting and chose Paris as his artistic headquarters. He met Jean Cocteau and was admitted to the entourage of Matisse, Bonnard, Picasso, Dufy, Von Dongen and Le Corbusier.
Matisse became his teacher but Massa was able to develop his own personality rather than be influenced by the great masters.
In Berlin and in Weimar (where he illustrated Wagner's works) his knowledge of architecture helped him immensely.
He collaborated with Serge Diaghilew in the presentation of Strawinsky's opera and in the Parade by Cocteau. His work for the theater was a collateral activity to painting which was his main occupation.
His talent became known through exhibitions in Italy, France, Germany, America, USSR, U.K., Argentina and the Far East. Some of his oil paintings can be found in museums and private collections of those countries.
When following his extraordinary evolution from the very inception one is impressed by his ability in developing his way of seeing things and his whole art. He followed the Paris school closely but in 1933 he was already painting in the futurist style. Hurrah for futurism. His modern paintings are more of a post impressionistic style but he has maintained a rare personality with a taste for equilibrium and harmony. There is equilibrium in the structure of his compositions and there is harmony in his lines and colours.