Enrico Castellani

Enrico Castellani, born in Castelmassa, province of Rovigo, on August 4, 1930, was one of the most significant Italian artists of the second half of the 20th century, renowned for his innovative exploration of the boundaries between painting, sculpture, and architecture. After studying in Novara and Milan, he moved to Brussels in 1952, where he attended the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts and the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture et des Arts Décoratifs de la Cambre, graduating in architecture in 1956. Upon returning to Italy, he settled in Milan, quickly becoming a leading figure in the city’s art scene. There, he formed a crucial partnership with Piero Manzoni, with whom he founded the Azimuth gallery and magazine in 1959, a landmark for conceptual and abstract art in Italy. Castellani soon moved away from informal art to focus on a radical investigation of the pictorial surface, developing his iconic “relief surfaces”—monochrome canvases shaped with nails and supports to create dynamic plays of light and shadow, which became his internationally recognized signature style. He was an active participant in the Zero and Nul groups, exhibiting in galleries and museums worldwide, including the Venice Biennale (1964, 1966, 1984, 2003), the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1965), and the São Paulo Biennial. His work is distinguished by formal rigor and constant material experimentation, establishing him as a master of programmed and kinetic art. Enrico Castellani died in Celleno, province of Viterbo, on December 1, 2017, leaving behind one of the most influential artistic legacies in contemporary art.