Piero Dorazio Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Piero Dorazio (Rome 1927-2005), after enrolling in the Faculty of Architecture, was involved at an early age in the difficult evolution of post-war Italian abstractionism, already in 1946 with Perilli, Guerrini in the "Gruppo Arte Sociale", Vespignani, Buratti , Muccini until the writing of the manifesto (1947) and the "Forma 1" exhibition with Consagra, Turcato, Accardi and Sanfilippo. Thus, from the late 1940s onwards, he stayed and became active in Paris and Prague, Harvard and Berlin until the decade 1960-1970, when he organized and directed the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania, interspersed with notable mentions. Read the full biography

Guide to Piero Dorazio price quotations

The artistic production of Piero Dorazio is anchored to the first abstract research movements of the second post-war period, which found fertile ground in various Italian cities, giving rise to real currents such as the MAC (Movement for concrete art) in the area of Como, Classical Abstractionism in Florence and Forma1 in Rome, of which Dorazio was a representative together with Carla Accardi, Antonio Sanfilippo, Giulio Turcato, Pietro Consagra, Ugo Attardi, Mino Guerrini and Wladimiro Tulli.

His expressive form evolved from the end of the 1940s up to crossing the entire second fifty years of the 1900s through the research, definition and further evolution of a sign pattern that defines the typicality of his iconography and which is inscribed from mid-1950s onwards in the wake of the current theorized by the American critic Clement Greenberg of the Color Field (pattern of color) which had great influence in the ambit of American action painting, with which Dorazio shared his early artistic maturity. The second half of the 1950s saw his return to painting, after a small period as a sculptor, and the use of color as a universal form of representation of light. The backgrounds are assiduous and nervous with almost divisionist effects recalling the influences of Pelizza Da Volpedo (examples of this painting are the two works presented by Capitolium in…). Towards the end of the 1960s the backgrounds stretch out demonstrating a more precise organization of space and greater attention to the emotions generated by color and shapes. The brushstroke, intense and subtle in the grids, becomes broad and defined in the colored bands; the latter distinguish the subsequent artistic period.

The necessary condition to be able to approach an evaluation process in relation to a work by Piero Dorazio is to have the certainty of its authenticity, which can only be ascertained in the presence of a confirmation in the form of a written certificate from the Dorazio Archive, located in Via Appiani in Milan and directed by Valentina Sonzogni.

Other characteristics to consider in order to determine the specific historical context of the work and its technical structure are the provenance, any publications and bibliography, the technique, the year of execution, the dimensions and last but not least, the state of storage.

Detailing the history of a work always guarantees greater commercial attractiveness, especially in the presence of provenance from authoritative collections or official publications. There are two general catalogues: the first published by Alfieri in 1977 and edited by Marisa Volpi Orlandini, the second published by Skira and currently being published (scheduled for 2024), edited by Francesco Tedeschi. Furthermore, among the many goals achieved, Dorazio participated in three Venice biennials, in the second edition of Documenta in Kassel and in the famous exhibition "The Responsive Eye", held at the MoMA in New York in 1965.

In the case of multiple works (printed on paper, canvas or sculpted) the edition must be considered more carefully, which unquestionably indicates the number of copies produced.

Once the certainty of authenticity has been determined, historical data of past sales of works that share the same historical, technical and qualitative characteristics with the specimen to be evaluated must be traced. These data can be extrapolated with an expert eye from the catalogs and price lists of auction houses but also from private and gallery sales that only the experience of the professional evaluator can know.

Piero Dorazio's performance over the last ten years has been characterized by an uninterrupted growth trend until 2019 (the year of the pandemic explosion) and by a second recovery period which in 2022 produced the first two auction results always above 600,000 euros. The lattices are the most requested subjects and those that have determined the most important awards, followed in terms of demand by the other works of the 60s and those of the 50s. The interest of the market for the works of the following period is greater in relation to the older specimens but does not record significant differences between one decade and another. This condition indicates a moment of good maturity in the prices of his works and a still lively state of demand. Given the historical and cultural consistency of the artist and his constant presence on the market, there is no reason to think that it cannot be a good long-term investment, but given recent developments, the current moment is ideal for sale, especially for those who bought not recently or inherited.

1950s: for medium-sized works on canvas the coefficient can vary from around 3.5 to 5 points (for example, for a 50x70 work the estimate could range from 40,000 to 60,000 euros. For works on paper, around one third.

1960s: for medium-sized works on canvas, the coefficient can vary from approximately 10 to 16 points (for a 50x70 work, for example, the estimate could vary from 120,000 to 190,000 euros) for grids and from 3 to 4 points for the other subjects (for example, for a 50x70 work the estimate could vary from 35,000 to 50,000 euros). For works on paper, about a third.

for medium-sized works on canvas, the coefficient can vary from about 1.5 to 3 points (for a 50x70 work, for example, the estimate could vary from 20,000 to 35,000 euros). For works on paper about half

Piero Dorazio Biography

Piero Dorazio (Rome 1927-2005), after enrolling in the Faculty of Architecture, was involved at an early age in the difficult evolution of post-war Italian abstractionism, already in 1946 with Perilli, Guerrini in the "Gruppo Arte Sociale", Vespignani, Buratti , Muccini until the writing of the manifesto (1947) and the "Forma 1" exhibition with Consagra, Turcato, Accardi and Sanfilippo. Thus, from the late 1940s onwards, he stayed and became active in Paris and Prague, Harvard and Berlin until the decade 1960-1970, when he organized and directed the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania, interspersed with notable mentions. He had solo exhibitions at the Venice Biennale in 1960, 1966 and 1988. He appeared in London, New York and in galleries in Switzerland and Germany. In 1974 he settled in Todi, where he worked and taught at the Atelier Institute of Modern Ceramics and his own studio. In the early 1980s his major exhibition at the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris traveled to the major American museums and ended at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome. He made his debut in Tokyo and Osaka in 1985 and 1986. Between 1993 and 1996 he conceived the project of executing fifty large mosaics in the Roman underground by international artists.