Piero Dorazio

Piero Dorazio was born in Rome on June 29, 1927. In 1945-46, alongside other young artists, he helped establish the “Gruppo Arte Sociale” and began studying architecture. His passion for painting and the reevaluation of Futurism led to the creation of the “Manifesto of Formalism” as part of the “Forma 1” group, which opposed provincialism and the official tendency of Socialist Realism. In 1949-50, he founded the “Age d’Or” group in Rome and, in 1953, wrote *La fantasia nell’arte moderna*, a key text on modern art. While in New York, Dorazio met American artists such as Motherwell, Rothko, de Kooning, and Kline, as well as the critic Clement Greenberg. From 1954 to 1959, he lived permanently in Rome. In 1960, he was invited by the University of Pennsylvania to head the Department of Fine Arts at the School of Fine Arts, one of the top art and architecture schools in the U.S. He taught there until 1969, also giving lectures at other universities. In 1970, Dorazio returned to Rome but continued to travel to Greece, Africa, and the Middle East. In 1975, he purchased and restored an ancient Camaldolese hermitage in Todi, adapting it as his studio, while spending summers in his house-studio on the island of Rhodes. Piero Dorazio passed away on May 17, 2005.