(born Castelmassa, Rovigo in 1930) Superficie nera, on the stretcher titled, signed, dated E. Castellani-1963, acrylic on shaped canvas, 60 x 40 cm, framed, (PP)

The work has been registered with the Archivio Castellani, Milan, under the number 63-032.

The painting will be provided with a photocertificate from the Archivio Castellani, Milan.

Provenance:
Motivi d’Arte, Turin (stamp on reverse)
Notizie Arte Contemporanea, Turin (stamp on reverse)
Private Collection, Italy

Exhibition:
Turin, Enrico Castellani, Notizie Arte Contemporanea, January - February 1965, exhibition catalogue F73B

In 1957, after studying painting, sculpture and architecture in Belgium, he returned to Italy and, in Milan, met Italian avant-garde artists Piero Manzoni, Lucio Fontana and Agostino Bonalumi, as well as Yves Klein and artists of the German Zero group; Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker. The 1957–58 Düsseldorf evening exhibitions of these artists’ works would influence him greatly. In 1958 he became part of the Movimento Arte Nucleare to which Manzoni, Fontana and Bonalumi also belonged. In 1959 Manzoni and Castellani jointly founded the Galerie Azimut and the Azimut magazine. The basic philosophy and aim of the Azimut artists was that the role of art is not to imitate; every work refers exclusively to itself, with its own reality and authenticity. This was the period in which Enrico Castellani executed his first relief works Superficie Nera, establishing the fundamental artistic principle of estroflessione. Nails, pressed against the back of the canvas, lifted the canvas to create a shaped surface. He used the protrusions to model monochrome, plastic structures, reacting with space and light, and invoking light and shadows. As with Superficie nero, the canvases are usually left monochrome.