Italian painter, born in Rome. He started a course studying architecture at Rome University, but in 1946 gave this up for painting, initially producing *Social Realist subjects. In 1947, however, he turned to abstraction and joined the Forma group (like many of its members he later joined the *Continuità group). He experimented with various types of abstract work before creating a distinctive style in the 1960s with brightly luminous bands of colour—‘like an heraldic flag’, as he put it (Very Sharp, 1965, Tate). Dorazio travelled a good deal and spent several years in the USA: from 1963 to 1967 he taught at the University of Pennsylvania.