Enrico Castellani was born on 4 August 1930 in Castelmassa, near Rovigo
In 1952, completed his studies in Novara and Milan, he moved to Bruxelles and attended painting and sculpture courses at the Académie des Beaux Arts
In 1956, he graduated in architecture from the École Nationale Superieure de la Cambre and, back in Milan, he worked until 1963 in Franco Buzzi’s architecture studio
The artist is known for his relief paintings, which he realises by fixing the canvas onto protruding nail heads before working on the support, a technique which it’s possible to create extraordinary effects of light and shadow Inlay patterns, taut surfaces and varied textures remained central to Castellani’s work, as he experimented with different materials and colours throughout his career
In 1959, when he made his first relief surface, he took part in the activities of the group of artists known as ‘Zero’ or ‘Nul’ with his friend Piero Manzoni, he founded ‘Azimuth’, a magazine through which Enrico Castellani promoted avant-garde painting and presented works by artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Heinz Mack, Jean Tinguely and Yves Klein, and he held his first solo exhibition at the gallery of the same name in 1960…
Between 1960 and 1962, he exhibited his works at La Tartaruga gallery in Rome and at the Galerie Aujord’hui in Brussels From 1963, the artist had numerous solo exhibitions in Italy and abroad Enrico Castellani represented Italy at the Venice Biennale in 1964, 1966 and 1984, he participated in the Guggenheim International Award and in the international exhibition ‘The Responsive Eye’ in 1965 at MoMa in New York In 1966 at the Venice Biennale he received the Gollin Prize, he stayed for a period in the United States and he created the works that he exhibited in his first solo show in New York at the Betty Parsons Gallery In 1967 he was invited to create an environmental work for the exhibition ‘Lo spazio dell’immagine’ (The Space of the Image) in Palazzo Trinci in Foligno, which was partly destroyed after the exhibition He made a second version in 1970 as part of ‘Vitalità del negativo nell’arte italiana 1960/70’ (Vitality of the Negative in Italian Art 1960/70) at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome
After the exile in Switzerland, he returned to Italy in 1973 and moved to Celleno, a small village in the province of Viterbo The occasions on which he has shown his work in the last decades of his life are rare, including solo and anthological exhibitions at Lia Rumma in Milan in 1999; at the Fondazione Prada in Milan in 2001; at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge University and at Galerie Greta Meert in Brussels in 2002; at Galerie Di Meo in Paris in 2004; at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow in 2005; again at Lia Rumma in Naples in 2006; and at the Haunch of Venison Gallery in New York in 2009 and 2012
In 2010 Castellani received the Praemium Imperiale for painting and in 2017 the artist died in Viterbo
