Dorazio, Piero

Born in Italy's capital, Piero Dorazio, who later became a painter and graphic artist, turned to studying architecture in 1945. He was influenced by various intellectual and artistic movements, such as Surrealism and Constructivism to Italian Futurism, and dealt extensively with both furniture design as well as the technique of silk-screen printing. In 1950, a visit to Paris led to the collaboration with L'Age d'Or, a notable avant-garde institution. This new artistic approach and his travels throughout Europe and America led to his international reputation a decade later.
 

In his urban and suspenseful abstract works, Dorazio captured a fleeting, emotionally charged view of life in passing. Luminosity itself could be the subject of his delicately textured and atmospheric grids. They embody a kind of lyricism that is both fragile and firmly constructed. Light and color alternate as abstract means of expression. Tactile grids seem to rotate across the surface of the works. Though fluid, they are resolutely placed brushstrokes. On paper, bold colors and rough texture undergo a mysteriously natural process that is at once dynamic and graceful. In this way, the artist created a balance between rigidity of the grid and lush ductus of his surface treatment.
 

Dorazio's unique formal language merges in a synthesis of barely tangible formalism and lyrical stroke. In this fascinating way, he continuously devoted himself to printmaking, with lithographs, etchings and also silkscreens. His printmaking oeuvre includes numerous designs that elevate his paintings and drawings to another constructed, architectural level, convincing with expression. Even today, Piero Dorazio is considered one of the most important Italian avant-garde abstract artists. Aged 77, he died in 2005 in Umbria's capital Perugia.