Enrico Castellani

Enrico Castellani is an Italian painter and relief artist, as well as a representative of conceptual art. He was the publisher of the magazine “Azimut”, which had the aim that art should not imitate. A work should only refer to itself, have its own reality and authenticity. Light and shadow, space and structure are not evoked in the viewer by deceiving his perception, but are contained in the picture itself. In his series entitled “Superficie Nera” he worked on canvas with a nailing machine, giving the surface a relief-like structure. The resulting indentations and protuberances create light and shadow effects. The canvases are left monochrome and are often white.

Born 1930 in Castelmassa, Rovigno (Italy)
Until 1956 studied painting and sculpture at the Académie des Beaux-Arts and architecture at the École Nationale Supérieure, both in Brussels (Belgium)
1957 Return to Italy, where in Milan he met the Italian avant-garde artists Peiro Manzoni, Lucio Fontana, Vicenzo Agnetti, Agostino Bonalumi, Yves Klein and the German ZERO artists
In 1957-1958 the legendary evening exhibitions by Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker took place in Düsseldorf, which had a major influence on Castellani
1958 Member of the group “Movimento Arte Nucleare”
1959 Opening of the Galleria Azimut in Milan together with his friend Manzoni
1959 shows his works called “Superficie Nera” for the first time
1964 Own exhibition space at the Venice Biennale (Italy)
1968 participant at the documenta 4 in Kassel (Germany)
Since 1975 lives and works in Celleno near Viterbo (Italy)