Spaces Of Light: Piero Dorazio and the International Zero Movement
The project 鈥淪PACES OF LIGHT. Piero Dorazio and the international ZERO movement鈥� focuses on the connections between Italian Post-war abstract artist Piero Dorazio (Rome, 1927 鈥� Perugia, 2005) and the international ZERO movement: a network of European artists, who at the end of the 1950s wanted to radically change the vision of art. An undisputed pioneer in post-war abstraction already from the 1940s, Dorazio established himself in the 1950s as a key figure in the Italian and European context, giving birth to a highly personal and distinctive poetic vision and visual language, focused on a redefinition of painting through a new significance of light, colour, space, and structure. Belonging to his same generation and particularly active in Germany, The Netherlands, and Belgium, ZERO artists intended to overcome the gestural and subjective identity of art Informel, to redefine a more objective and direct relationship of art with the world. They realized monochrome surfaces, textures, grids; sequences and collections of everyday objects; machines made of scrap metal or new industrial products; objects that modulated, reflected, or projected light, spatial installations. These works were not meant to reflect their creator鈥檚 mood, but rather to heighten their observer鈥檚 perception and awareness of physical phenomena, such as light and movement, focusing on issues as structure and vibration: all aspects that are pivotal also in Dorazio鈥檚 ground-breaking painting from these same years. The project is intended to highlight these connections, both in historical and poetic terms, to add an original and meaningful chapter to the understanding and knowledge of European art from the 1950s and 1960s.
Conceived, curated and edited by Francesca Pola, realized in collaboration with Archivio Piero Dorazio and promoted by Cortesi Gallery, the project consists in a detailed publication and exhibition on the subject, to be presented jointly in Milan in 2021, as this year marks the 60th anniversary of crucial hotspots in theses relationships: the Piero Dorazio extensive solo exhibition at Kunstverein fu虉r die Rheinlande und Westfalen in Du虉sseldorf during October and November 1961; the publication and presentation of the third, last and most significant issue of the ZERO magazine, to which more than 30 international artists contributed (Dorazio was among them), in July 1961; the first exhibition in the series 鈥淣ove Tendencije鈥�, opening in August 1961 at the Galerija Suvremene Umjetnosti in Zagreb, inspired by Dorazio鈥檚 solo room at the Venice Biennale from the previous year.
Constantly in touch with each other, ZERO artists did not work as a well-established, closed group with a clearly defined programme, but rather as a great international workshop and catalyst, where the networking of creative experiences allowed the new ideas to grow. In the second half of the 1950s, Dorazio was already strongly connected to the German context through important figures such as the artist Hans Richter, the critic Will Grohmann, the gallery owner Rudolf Springer. He got in direct and fruitful contact also with many ZERO artists: his interlocutors in this network include ZERO founders Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, and early protagonists such as Gu虉nther Uecker and Almir Mavignier. Dorazio collaborated with them across Europe, sharing a new positive and future-oriented vision of art and the world, and realizing publications and shows that would be meaningful vehicles for their beliefs, such as the third issue of the ZERO magazine in Du虉sseldorf (1961), or the 鈥淣UL鈥� exhibitions at Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1962 and 1965). Dorazio was also a key figure in introducing the ZERO movement into the United States. He invited Piene to teach as visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadephia, where Piene himself organized the first ZERO exhibition in the U.S. context at the Institute of Contemporary Art in October 1964 (also Dorazio鈥檚 work was featured in the show, which travelled to the Washington Gallery of Modern Art the following year). Dorazio himself was close friend and collaborating, already from the 1950s, with Howard Wise, the American dealer who presented the first ZERO exhibition in a U.S. private gallery, featuring the works by Mack, Piene and Uecker in New York in November 1964. A few months later, Dorazio and several artists connected to ZERO (Mack, Mavignier, Uecker, but also Enrico Castellani, Walter Leblanc, Fran莽ois Morellet, among others) participated in The Responsive Eye, an exhibition that opened in February 1965 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and travelled throughout the United States until January 1966: a major international show about heightened visual perception, featuring artists working on this subject both in Europe and the U.S., such as Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, and Frank Stella.
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The project 鈥淪PACES OF LIGHT. Piero Dorazio and the international ZERO movement鈥� focuses on the connections between Italian Post-war abstract artist Piero Dorazio (Rome, 1927 鈥� Perugia, 2005) and the international ZERO movement: a network of European artists, who at the end of the 1950s wanted to radically change the vision of art. An undisputed pioneer in post-war abstraction already from the 1940s, Dorazio established himself in the 1950s as a key figure in the Italian and European context, giving birth to a highly personal and distinctive poetic vision and visual language, focused on a redefinition of painting through a new significance of light, colour, space, and structure. Belonging to his same generation and particularly active in Germany, The Netherlands, and Belgium, ZERO artists intended to overcome the gestural and subjective identity of art Informel, to redefine a more objective and direct relationship of art with the world. They realized monochrome surfaces, textures, grids; sequences and collections of everyday objects; machines made of scrap metal or new industrial products; objects that modulated, reflected, or projected light, spatial installations. These works were not meant to reflect their creator鈥檚 mood, but rather to heighten their observer鈥檚 perception and awareness of physical phenomena, such as light and movement, focusing on issues as structure and vibration: all aspects that are pivotal also in Dorazio鈥檚 ground-breaking painting from these same years. The project is intended to highlight these connections, both in historical and poetic terms, to add an original and meaningful chapter to the understanding and knowledge of European art from the 1950s and 1960s.
Conceived, curated and edited by Francesca Pola, realized in collaboration with Archivio Piero Dorazio and promoted by Cortesi Gallery, the project consists in a detailed publication and exhibition on the subject, to be presented jointly in Milan in 2021, as this year marks the 60th anniversary of crucial hotspots in theses relationships: the Piero Dorazio extensive solo exhibition at Kunstverein fu虉r die Rheinlande und Westfalen in Du虉sseldorf during October and November 1961; the publication and presentation of the third, last and most significant issue of the ZERO magazine, to which more than 30 international artists contributed (Dorazio was among them), in July 1961; the first exhibition in the series 鈥淣ove Tendencije鈥�, opening in August 1961 at the Galerija Suvremene Umjetnosti in Zagreb, inspired by Dorazio鈥檚 solo room at the Venice Biennale from the previous year.
Constantly in touch with each other, ZERO artists did not work as a well-established, closed group with a clearly defined programme, but rather as a great international workshop and catalyst, where the networking of creative experiences allowed the new ideas to grow. In the second half of the 1950s, Dorazio was already strongly connected to the German context through important figures such as the artist Hans Richter, the critic Will Grohmann, the gallery owner Rudolf Springer. He got in direct and fruitful contact also with many ZERO artists: his interlocutors in this network include ZERO founders Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, and early protagonists such as Gu虉nther Uecker and Almir Mavignier. Dorazio collaborated with them across Europe, sharing a new positive and future-oriented vision of art and the world, and realizing publications and shows that would be meaningful vehicles for their beliefs, such as the third issue of the ZERO magazine in Du虉sseldorf (1961), or the 鈥淣UL鈥� exhibitions at Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1962 and 1965). Dorazio was also a key figure in introducing the ZERO movement into the United States. He invited Piene to teach as visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadephia, where Piene himself organized the first ZERO exhibition in the U.S. context at the Institute of Contemporary Art in October 1964 (also Dorazio鈥檚 work was featured in the show, which travelled to the Washington Gallery of Modern Art the following year). Dorazio himself was close friend and collaborating, already from the 1950s, with Howard Wise, the American dealer who presented the first ZERO exhibition in a U.S. private gallery, featuring the works by Mack, Piene and Uecker in New York in November 1964. A few months later, Dorazio and several artists connected to ZERO (Mack, Mavignier, Uecker, but also Enrico Castellani, Walter Leblanc, Fran莽ois Morellet, among others) participated in The Responsive Eye, an exhibition that opened in February 1965 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and travelled throughout the United States until January 1966: a major international show about heightened visual perception, featuring artists working on this subject both in Europe and the U.S., such as Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, and Frank Stella.
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