TODI, UMBRIA.- Italian abstract painter Piero Dorazio, 77, died. He was born in Rome in 1927. He studied architecture for several years at Rome University. In 1946 he met Turcato, Corpora, Guttuso, Severini and Prampolini; and painted his first abstract pictures. He took part in the drafting of the manifesto Forma 1 and lived in Paris 1947-8 on a French government scholarship, meeting Magnelli, Vantongerloo and other abstract artists. Back in Rome, he organized in 1950-1 a co-operative gallery Age d'Or for avant-garde exhibitions, edited Forma 2 and organized the second national exhibition of abstract art. In 1952 he promoted with Burri, Colla and others the foundation Origine and edited the magazine Arti Visive.

He made white paintings 1951-4 with points and lines in relief. He lived in New York 1953-4 and met the Abstract Expressionists. His first one-man exhibition took place at the Wittenborn One-Wall Gallery, New York, 1953. He began in 1954 to paint with splodges and bands of intense color, followed in 1958-63 by regular all-over webs of color lines and then bolder, wider color structures. He visited the USA regularly from 1960, teaching at the University of Pennsylvania and elsewhere. In 1961 he was awarded the Prix Kandinsky.