Lugano
Enrico Castellani, born in Rovigo in 1930, studied art, sculpture and architecture first at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan and then at the Academie Royale des Beaux Artsin Brussels. In 1956,also in the Belgian city, he graduated in architecture from the Ecole Nationale Superieure de la Cambre. He returned to Italy in 1957, settling in Milan, where he became a leading figure in the nascent art scene. In 1959, with friend and colleague Piero Manzoni and Galleria Azimut, he founded the magazine “Azimuth.”
Inspired by gestural painting, especially Mark Tobey, Castellani embarked on a new artistic path, focused on monochrome canvases, often completely white but animated by plays of light and shadow. This innovative approach was significant in the history of abstract art, influencing even Donald Judd, who called Castellani the father of minimalism in 1966. While Manzoni preferred kaolin and cotton for his “Achromes,” Castellani and Bonalumi explored inverting the canvas by using nails, ribs, and wood or metal forms inserted behind it. In 1959, Castellani created his first relief surface, a hallmark of his style. Critics called it “different repetition,” where the carefully studied interplay between full and empty spaces on the canvas created a unique, coherent and intense visual experience.
Castellani participated in several prestigious exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 1964, 1966 (with a solo show), 1984, and 2003. He also showcased his work at MoMA in New York in 1965 and the Eighth Biennial of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 1970, he contributed to the exhibition Vitality of the Negative in Italian Art in Rome, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva. In 1981, Castellani took part in Italian Identity: Art in Italy after 1959 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and in Art and Kinetic Program 1953-63 at Palazzo Reale in Milan in 1983. In 1994, he was featured in The Italian Metamorphosis at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Enrico Castellani passed away in 2017, leaving behind a lasting legacy in the world of abstract art.