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Piero Dorazio

Biography

The artistic work of Piero Dorazio,  born in 1927 in Rome, starts directly after the Second World War and is dedicated from the beginning to the phenomena of colour and light. In 1945 he starts his studies in architecture in Rome. From 1947 to 1948 he stays in Paris enabled by a Scholarship for the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. In 1950 he returns to Italy and founds the gallery forum Age d'Or in Rome und Florence. From 1953 to 1954  he spends a year abroad in the USA meeting with  f.e. Marc Rothko, Robert Motherwell und Barnett Newman. In 1961  he is granted with the Prix Kandinsky. In 1960 he starts teaching at the Pennysylvania University School of Design and becomes Professor in 1968. During the 60's the first  works with colour bands arise. In 1970 he returns to Italy. In 1973 the first "Grey Changing" arises. In 1974 he settles down in an old abandoned cloister in Todi Umbria, Italy.  In 1997 he is awarded with the Michelangelo-Price from the Accademia dei Virtuosi del Panthenon. With the use of geometry as an artistic medium, he captures the factors light and colour and brings them to the canvas. In his delicately structured and atmospheric, grid-like painting, which is strongly affected by his architectural studies, light itself is a consistently central theme. Moreover, colour manifests itself as a luminous configuration of variation through abstract sequences of patterns and fields. In this context, the term ‘abstract’ applies only in the sense that the paintings are not figurative. Still today, Dorazio is deemed one of the most important Italian artists of the second half of the 20th century and is viewed as a pioneer of Abstraction in Italy. In 2005 he dies in Perugia, Umbria.

Exhibitions (Selection)

1948 Quadriennale di Roma, Rome / Salon des réalités nouvellesParis   |   1950 Founding of the gallery forum Age d'Or in Rome und Florence   |   1959 Documenta II, Kassel   |   1961 Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Dusseldorf   |   1963 Museo de Arte Moderno, Sao Paulo   |   1964 Documenta III, Kassel   |   1966 Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart   |   1969 Haus am Waldsee, Berlin   |   1971 Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Bâle   |   1979 Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris / Retroperspective, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo   |   1980 Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale   |   1981 Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen / Staatsgalerie Moderner Kunst und Neue Pinakothek, Munich   |   1982 Quadrat Moderne Galerie, Bottrop   |   1983 Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome   |   1985 Takanawa Art Gallery Seibu, Tokyo   |   1988 Biennale in Venice / Piero Dorazio: Bilder Aquarelle Zeichnungen (1956-1988), Kunsthaus Zug   |   1990 Musée de Grenoble Galleria Communale d’Arte Moderna, Bologna   |   1992 Kunstverein Ludwigshafen   |   1996 Calcografia Nazionale, Rome   |   1998 PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan   |   2001 Museum für Moderne Kunst, Bozen   |   2016 Art after 1945 - 1968, Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe   |   2017 Group show Colours. The emotion of art, Castello di Rivoli, Turin   |   2018 – 2019 Group show Ausgang offen – Neues aus der Sammlung, Kunsthalle Weishaupt, Ulm   |   2019 Group show 40 ANNI: 40th Anniversary. Selected Works From The Permanent Collection, Museo Italo – Americano / Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, San Francisco   |   2021 Group show Spazi di Luce Piero Dorazio e il movimento internazionale ZERO, Cortesi Gallery, Milan.

Piero Dorazio

Biography

The artistic work of Piero Dorazio,  born in 1927 in Rome, starts directly after the Second World War and is dedicated from the beginning to the phenomena of colour and light. In 1945 he starts his studies in architecture in Rome. From 1947 to 1948 he stays in Paris enabled by a Scholarship for the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. In 1950 he returns to Italy and founds the gallery forum Age d'Or in Rome und Florence. From 1953 to 1954  he spends a year abroad in the USA meeting with  f.e. Marc Rothko, Robert Motherwell und Barnett Newman. In 1961  he is granted with the Prix Kandinsky. In 1960 he starts teaching at the Pennysylvania University School of Design and becomes Professor in 1968. During the 60's the first  works with colour bands arise. In 1970 he returns to Italy. In 1973 the first "Grey Changing" arises. In 1974 he settles down in an old abandoned cloister in Todi Umbria, Italy.  In 1997 he is awarded with the Michelangelo-Price from the Accademia dei Virtuosi del Panthenon. With the use of geometry as an artistic medium, he captures the factors light and colour and brings them to the canvas. In his delicately structured and atmospheric, grid-like painting, which is strongly affected by his architectural studies, light itself is a consistently central theme. Moreover, colour manifests itself as a luminous configuration of variation through abstract sequences of patterns and fields. In this context, the term ‘abstract’ applies only in the sense that the paintings are not figurative. Still today, Dorazio is deemed one of the most important Italian artists of the second half of the 20th century and is viewed as a pioneer of Abstraction in Italy. In 2005 he dies in Perugia, Umbria.

Exhibitions (Selection)

1948 Quadriennale di Roma, Rome / Salon des réalités nouvellesParis   |   1950 Founding of the gallery forum Age d'Or in Rome und Florence   |   1959 Documenta II, Kassel   |   1961 Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Dusseldorf   |   1963 Museo de Arte Moderno, Sao Paulo   |   1964 Documenta III, Kassel   |   1966 Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart   |   1969 Haus am Waldsee, Berlin   |   1971 Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Bâle   |   1979 Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris / Retroperspective, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo   |   1980 Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale   |   1981 Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen / Staatsgalerie Moderner Kunst und Neue Pinakothek, Munich   |   1982 Quadrat Moderne Galerie, Bottrop   |   1983 Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome   |   1985 Takanawa Art Gallery Seibu, Tokyo   |   1988 Biennale in Venice / Piero Dorazio: Bilder Aquarelle Zeichnungen (1956-1988), Kunsthaus Zug   |   1990 Musée de Grenoble Galleria Communale d’Arte Moderna, Bologna   |   1992 Kunstverein Ludwigshafen   |   1996 Calcografia Nazionale, Rome   |   1998 PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan   |   2001 Museum für Moderne Kunst, Bozen   |   2016 Art after 1945 - 1968, Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe   |   2017 Group show Colours. The emotion of art, Castello di Rivoli, Turin   |   2018 – 2019 Group show Ausgang offen – Neues aus der Sammlung, Kunsthalle Weishaupt, Ulm   |   2019 Group show 40 ANNI: 40th Anniversary. Selected Works From The Permanent Collection, Museo Italo – Americano / Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, San Francisco   |   2021 Group show Spazi di Luce Piero Dorazio e il movimento internazionale ZERO, Cortesi Gallery, Milan.

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