When Colour Becomes a Conversation: Charles Pollock and Piero Dorazio in Brussels

The inaugural exhibition at the new Ars Belga | Matthu Boghossian gallery explores the creative dialogue between two important figures of postwar abstraction.

A friendship that began in Rome during the early 1960s is at the heart of the inaugural exhibition at Ars Belga | Matthu Boghossian’s new Brussels gallery.

For the first time, works by American painter Charles Pollock and Italian artist Piero Dorazio are brought together in an exhibition devoted not only to their individual approaches to abstraction, but also to the personal connection that united them for almost three decades.

Charles Pollock arrived in Rome with his wife Sylvia for a sabbatical year, following the advice of influential art critic Clement Greenberg. Among the people Greenberg suggested he meet was Piero Dorazio, already a central figure in Italian abstraction despite being twenty five years younger than Pollock.

Dorazio helped the American painter settle into the city, find the appropriate materials and connect with the right printer. Their meeting would prove artistically significant. During this period, Pollock created his Rome Series, while the two painters began a conversation about colour and structure that continued through letters, studio visits and shared professional experiences.

Two distinct approaches to abstraction

Although their methods were different, both artists treated colour as a fundamental element of construction.

Dorazio built his canvases through overlapping grids and bands of colour, creating surfaces that appear to vibrate with light and movement. His paintings have an optical intensity in which colour becomes rhythm, energy and spatial structure.

Pollock followed a more restrained path. His compositions developed slowly through repetition, balance and carefully controlled relationships between colours. Rather than using colour to create atmosphere, he allowed it to define the architecture of the painting itself.

Their contrasting personalities also shaped their friendship. Pollock’s daughter Francesca remembered her father as reserved, while Dorazio was warm and talkative. Yet when the two stood in front of paintings, their conversations seemed endless.

In 1965 and again in 1967, Dorazio invited Pollock to the University of Pennsylvania as artist in residence. Their circle gradually expanded to include figures such as Barnett Newman, while their correspondence preserved a mixture of artistic discussion and genuine affection.

Looking beyond a famous surname

Charles Pollock was the eldest of the five Pollock brothers. He was the first to move to New York and study with Thomas Hart Benton, later drawing his younger brother Jackson into the same artistic environment.

By the 1960s, however, Charles had deliberately moved away from the centre of the American art world. His career took him from teaching design at Michigan State University to developing an increasingly abstract body of work, before settling first in Rome and later in Paris.

Dorazio, meanwhile, was a cofounder of the Forma 1 group and became one of the leading voices of twentieth century Italian abstraction. His international career included appearances at the Venice Biennale and documenta, as well as participation in the Museum of Modern Art’s influential 1965 exhibition The Responsive Eye.

The Brussels exhibition coincides with the Archivio Piero Dorazio’s preparation of the artist’s catalogue raisonné and renewed interest in an oeuvre represented in major collections including MoMA in New York, Tate in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

By bringing Pollock and Dorazio together, Ars Belga presents abstraction as more than a formal exploration. Here, painting becomes a record of exchange, generosity and a friendship sustained by a shared belief in the power of colour.

Practical information

Exhibition: Charles Pollock / Piero Dorazio
Dates: Until 5 January 2027
Venue: Ars Belga | Matthu Boghossian, 2 rue Saint Georges, 1050 Brussels
Opening hours: Wednesday to Saturday, from 11:00 to 18:00
Admission: Free
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