Enrico Castellani, one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, passes away

Enrico Castellani, one of the most important artists of the twentieth century, a major protagonist, after Lucio Fontana and together with Agostino Bonalumi, of the season of spatialism, died today at the age of eighty-seven. Castellani in particular developed his peculiar poetics of introflections and extroflections: by arranging nails on monochrome canvases he created pieces of infinity, succeeding each time in giving life to surprising images capable of breaking the two-dimensionality of the support and thus inserting himself in the furrow of the most up-to-date research of his time.

Born in 1930 in Castelmassa (province of Rovigo), Castellani studied in Belgium and then returned to Italy, in Milan, where he collaborated with Piero Manzoni, founding the celebrated magazine Azimuth, which was very short-lived (it came out in only two issues, in 1959 and 1960), but welcomed contributions from the greatest artists and critics of the time, from Gillo Dorfles to Yves Klein, from Nanni Balestrini to Edoardo Sanguineti, from Robert Rauschenberg to Vincenzo Agnetti, from Lucio Fontana to Jean Tinguely. The first of Castellani’s relief surfaces was actually in 1959. He participated in four editions of the Venice Biennale and several other exhibitions around the world, and his works are collected in public museums of international significance. With Enrico Castellani goes one of the great names in the history of Italian art.

Image: Enrico Castellani, Silver Surface (2008; acrylic on canvas, 150 x 120 cm). Ph. Credit

Enrico Castellani, one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, passes away

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.