Lugano
Piero Dorazio was born in Rome on June 29, 1927. After completing his classical studies, he enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture, at the same time initiating his path in postwar Italian abstract art. In 1946 he was among the founders of the Gruppo Arte Sociale, together with Perilli, Guerrini, Vespignani, Buratti and Muccini. In 1947 he participated in the drafting of the Formalism Manifesto and the birth of the Forma 1 group, sharing the experience with artists such as Consagra, Turcato, Accardi and Sanfilippo.
Beginning in the late 1940s, Dorazio stayed in several European and American cities, including Paris, Prague, Harvard and Berlin. Between 1960 and 1970 he directed the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania, consolidating his international visibility. He exhibited with solo shows at the Venice Biennale (1960, 1966, 1988) and in prestigious galleries in London, New York, Switzerland and Germany.
In 1974 he settled in Todi, where he opened his own studio and taught at the Atelier School for Modern Ceramics. In the early 1980s, the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris dedicated a major traveling exhibition to him, which was hosted in numerous U.S. museums and concluded at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome. In the following years he exhibited in Japan (Tokyo and Osaka, 1985-1986) and in major European cities, winning numerous awards. Piero Dorazio died in Perugia in 2005.