What better way to
enhance the long winter chill than to look at COLOR!
There has been a strong strain of modernism in Italian art since the early 1900s, when
Italian artists adapted Cubism and added the
idea of movement, which led to the eventual dissolution of form. After a brief
flirtation with Fascist-imposed social realism, Italy again became a major center
for artistic modernist experimentation in all media.
Dorazio studied
architecture starting in 1945, but at the same time he produced his first
abstract paintings. His early works were influenced by Cubism and the Italian
offshoot of that movement, Futurism. He
studied art in Paris in the late 1940s where he encountered all of the various
strains of modernism, and also stayed for a time in the US, where he was
exposed to the work of the Abstract
Expressionists.
In 1947 Dorazio participated in the Italian modernist
movement Forma 1, which advocated the free use of color and emphasized
abstraction in Italian art. While Dorazio’s abstractions changed from his
earliest work of free abstraction to geometric abstraction, he never lost his
love of color. In 1960 he introduced into his work paintings that consisted of
painted tape in geometric formations.
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Ambaradam, 1968. Oil and tape on board, 193 x 290 cm (76” x 114 1/8”). Photo courtesy of the artist. © 2014 Piero Dorazio / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. (8S-1035dzars) |
Raw Spectrum, painted ten years after Ambaradam,
shows the artist’s continued (thank goodness) abiding love of color harmonies.
It also demonstrates a connection to Dorazio’s earlier influence by Cubism, and
the visual movement of the piece is definitely in keeping with the spirit of
Futurism’s emphasis on the dynamic possibilities of color. One can also see the
influence of his tape paintings in the long, horizontal strips of neutral
color.
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Oval I, 1982. Oil on paper, 44.92 x 57.94 cm (17 11/16” x 22 13/16”). Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY. © 2014 Piero Dorazio / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. (AK-1535dzars) |
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Peaceful Solution, 1976–1977. Oil on canvas, 251.6 x 221 cm (99” x 87”). Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY. © 2014 Piero Dorazio / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. (AK-2248dzars) |
Studio Activity:
Create a work with vibrating colors. Using the color wheel to ascertain
complementary colors, use paint to make 2” x 2” squares in a variety of
complementary colors in a range of intensity. Situate the squares in various
patterns until they create a visual movement or rhythm. Observe how the colors
seem to change when placed next to certain other colors.
Correlations to Davis
programs: Explorations in Art Grade 4: 6.35, Explorations in Art Grade 5:
3.15, Explorations in Art Grade 6: 5.25, Exploring Visual Design 4, Exploring
Painting 12
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