Enrico Castellani

Enrico Castellani (* August 4, 1930 in Castel Massa, Rovigo, Italy ) is an Italian painter and relief artists and representatives of conceptual art. He lives and works since 1975 in Celleno in Viterbo, Italy.

Life and work

Enrico Castellani studied until 1956 painting and sculpture at the Académie des Beaux -Arts in Brussels and architecture at the École Nationale Supérieure, also in Belgium.

In 1957, Enrico Castellani returned to Italy. He moved to Milan and he established artistic contacts with the representatives of the then avant-garde in Italy, these included, among others, Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Vincenzo and Agostino Agnetti Bonalumi. With Piero Manzoni Castellani forges a close friendship. He also met Yves Klein know and exchanged ideas with German artists of ZERO.

Enrico Castellani took in 1957 and 1958 participated in the famous " evening exhibitions" in Dusseldorf, organized by Otto Piene, Heinz Mack and Günther Uecker. These exhibitions have been observed much in Italy. In 1958, Enrico Castellani was a member of the artist group " Movimento Arte Nucleare ". This group included among others, Piero Manzoni, Lucio Fontana, Francis Picabia and Agostino Bonalumi.

Piero Manzoni and Enrico Castellani opened in December 1959, the Galleria Azimut in Milan ( which lasted until July 1963 ), and issued the first edition of its magazine " Azimuth ". One goal of Azimuth was the message that the task of art is not to imitate something. Each work should only refer to themselves and represent their own reality and authenticity. In 1959, Castellani produced his first " Superficie Nera ". These were jobs where he worked canvases with a nailing machine, that He created a relief-like structure on the surface of these monochrome white images and thus generated a strong light and shadow effect. Castellani developed this technique further in the 1970s and 1980s and other materials began to be used, for example aluminum.

Enrico Castellani participated in numerous exhibitions worldwide. His works are part of the collections of major museums and galleries. In the years 1964, 1966 and 2003, he was invited to the Venice Biennale ( 1964, he put in a room with Getulio Alviani off). In 1968 he participated in the documenta 4 in Kassel.

Literature and sources

• Exhibition catalog for Documenta IV: IV documentation. International Exhibition; Catalogue: Volume 1: ( painting and sculpture ); Volume 2: (graphics / objects ); Kassel 1968
• Kimpel, Harald / stem, Karin: documenta IV International Exhibition 1968 - A photographic reconstruction ( Series of the documenta - Archives); Bremen 2007, ISBN 978-3-86108-524-9