Piero Dorazio
Biography
Piero Dorazio was born in Rome on June 29, 1927. He studied at the classical high school attending the studio of the painter Bandinelli starting to paint landscape scenes and still lifes and then moving on to works of cubist inspiration. In 1947 he was one of the founders of the group "Forma 1" together with Carla Accardi, Attardi, Consagra, Guerrini, Sanfilippo, Perilli and Turcato. The group follows the trend of abstractionism and moves in opposition to the social function of art carried out by a group of artists including Guttuso, Sassu and others. At the beginning of the 50s Dorazio opened the gallery "L'Age d'Or" with Perilli and Guerrini with the intention of making it an exhibition place for avant-garde artists. He made a trip to Paris in 1947 where he met Gino Severini, Hans Arp, George Bracque and others. He began his exhibition activity in 1948 participating in the"Quadriennale di Roma"and the "Salon des réalités nouvelles" in Paris. In 1953 he was invited by Harvard University for a seminar on art and humanism. The following year the Rose Fried Gallery hosted his first solo show in New York. In 1957 he presented his first solo exhibition in Rome at the Galleria La Salita. He also participated in the Venice Biennale of 1956, 1958 and that of 1960 with a personal room. In 1960 he went to the United States where at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia he received the task of directing the department of fine arts, a position he held for the next ten years alternating it with a semester teaching. After participating in "Documenta 2" in Kassel in 1959, in 1962 he joined the "Zero Group" participating in all the group's group exhibitions. In 1965 he participated in the exhibition "The Responsive Eye" at the MOMA in New York and in 1966 he was present again at the Venice Biennale. Invited to Berlin by the German Academy, he settled there for six months, participating in the rebellious ferments of the student movement. Starting from the seventies he made numerous trips, Middle East and Africa in particular, then settling permanently in Todi in Umbria. In the meantime, the exhibition activity continues both in Italy and abroad, also taking an interest in scenography and artist's books. His first retrospective was organized in France in 1979 at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; later this event was transferred to the United States where it was presented in numerous museums. In the following years he continued his exhibition activity such as that of 1983 taking the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, the San Luca Prize in 1986 and the personal room at the Venice Biennale in 1988. In 1989 he collaborated on the project of the "Fiumara d'Arte"of Tusa in Sicily, a large open-air museum park designed by Antonio Presti and in 1966 he created the "art room" of the Atelier sul Mare in Castel di Tusa. In those years he was involved in numerous exhibitions both in Italy and abroad in important private galleries and public institutions, actively participating in the cultural debate of art with interventions in the major Italian newspapers until his death in Perugia in 2005.
Tags: Piero Dorazio - Dorazio - Forma 1 - Quadriennale di Roma - Biennale di Venezia - Gruppo Zero - Fiumara d'Arte
Piero Dorazio - Abstract Art
Abstract Art begins in Europe, precisely in Russia, by Vasilij Kandinskij. Abstractionism is distinguished by some peculiarities: it does not imitate reality, it does not reproduce nature, it does not reproduce life but from these two assumptions synthesizes perceptions mediated by the sensitivity of the author. The pictoural composition translates into simple geometric elements: the line, the circle, the rectangle, and shapes free from irregular contours. These elements are filled with colors and their weight and chromatic relationship determine the meaning of the work that still refers to the feeling of the artist's spiritual moment.
Tags: Abstract Art - Abstractionism - Vasilij Kandinskij