Piero Dorazio was born in Rome on June 29, 1927. It was here, from 1945 to 1946, that he took the initial steps, along with other artists, for the birth of the “Gruppo Arte Sociale” (Social Art Group), and at the same time he began his studies of architecture. A vocation for research in painting and the revaluation of Futurism inspire the “Manifesto del Formalismo” (Manifesto of Formalism) of the “Forma 1” Group which he directed together with Consagra, Perilli, Turcato and others, against the provincialism and the official tendency of “social realism”.
From 1949 to 1950 he organized the “Age d'Or” group in Rome. In 1953 he wrote the book "La fantasia dell'arte nella vita moderna," ("The Fantasy of Art in Modern Life"), the first fundamental book on modern art. In New York he associated with the new American artists, among whom Motherwell, Ferber, Glarner, Rothko, Kiersler, De Kooning, Cornell, Kline, Frankenthaler, and then the critic, Greenberg.
From 1954 to 1959 he lived in Rome. In 1960 the University of Pennsylvania invited him to renew and direct the Department of Fine Arts at the School of Fine Arts, which, in the sixties, was considered the best school of art and architecture in America. He taught there from 1960 to 1969, giving lectures in other universities. In 1970 he settled in Rome and at the same time he took trips to Greece, Africa and the Middle East. In 1975 he purchased an ancient hermitage, restructured it, and lived there using the church building as his studio. For the past few years he has been spending his summers in his studio-home in Rhodes.
He died on May 17th, 2005.