Lot number 2504 - Auction 150
'CYKLADIC V' (1980)

PIERO DORAZIO 1927 Rome - 2005 Perugia 'CYKLADIC V' (1980) Oil on canvas. 30 x 50 cm, Frame 33,8 x 53,5 x 6 cm. Verso: signed 'Piero Dorazio', dated, titled. With two artist's stamps and inscribed '1248' and stamped 'lorenzelli arte milano' on the frame moulding. With remnants of an old adhesive label. Very good condition. Framed behind glass. 'Cykladic V' is a characteristic work from the later oeuvre of Piero Dorazio, who was one of the leading representatives of Arte Concreta and is considered a decisive pioneer of abstract art in post-war Italy. The title refers to a series of several works in which Dorazio explores the effect of light and the cultural resonance of the Mediterranean region, in particular the Greek Cyclades. In these works, he transforms impressions of scenic clarity and archaic geometry into his unmistakable language of rhythmically placed bands of colour. The composition is characterised by bright, colour-intensive stripes that create a vibrant spatiality in a precise arrangement. Formal rigour meets the expressive power of colour - a field of tension that has a lasting influence on Dorazio's work. Piero Dorazio, who originally trained as an architect, was one of the most important innovators of Italian painting after 1945. After early figurative approaches, he quickly turned to abstraction. A one-year stay in the USA in 1953/54, during which he was in close contact with artists such as Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Robert Motherwell, was decisive for his development. Equally formative was his engagement with Kandinsky's theory of abstraction and the spiritual potential of colour. Dorazio was not concerned with mere effect, but with pictorial analysis: for him, colour and light became autonomous forces that carry universal, humanistic messages. In 'Cykladic V', this claim is reflected in a particularly elegant way: the dense overlapping of coloured bands creates movement, light and depth without losing the clarity of the composition.