Piero Dorazio

Piero Dorazio (Rome, June 29, 1927 - Perugia, May 17, 2005) was an Italian painter. He is known for his gestural, atmospheric paintings of grids crosshatched with fluid brushstrokes and pulsating in color and texture. Born in Rome, Dorazio studied formally in classical painting and drawing, followed by architecture; by the late 1940s, his presence in artistic and literary circles brought about the influence of Russian Suprematism, Constructivism, the School of Paris, Surrealist biomorphism, and most notably, Italian Futurism—Dorazio was highly influenced by Giacomo Balla. In the late 1950s, Dorazio created monochromatic, pictorial paintings whose surface consisted of woven strands of color and were likened to “a visible net.” As Dorazio’s work progressed, he continued his linear, crisscrossed paintings using designs that varied in density and complexity but were consistently concerned with luminosity.