Enrico Castellani was born in Castelmassa, in the province of Rovigo. After enrolling at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, he moved to Brussels, Belgium, in 1952, where he pursued studies in architecture at the École Nationale Supérieure de la Cambre. Graduating in 1956, he returned to Italy and settled in Milan, where he started working at an architectural firm.
In Milan, Castellani crossed paths with Piero Manzoni, sparking a profound artistic collaboration and enduring friendship that spanned many years. Manzoni introduced him to the artistic principles of the Dutch Zero Group, and they participated together in numerous group exhibitions, refining their shared stylistic characteristics. Following his early artistic explorations, influenced by U.S. action painting and the works of artists like Mark Tobey, Enrico Castellani forged his own distinctive and minimalist style.
In 1959, he unveiled his first relief surfaces, monochrome canvases transformed through various techniques, including the use of nails and ribs, to create plays of light and shadow resulting in what he called “different repetitions”. Between 1958 and 1959, Castellani, alongside Piero Manzoni and Agostino Bonalumi, exhibited their works at prominent galleries such as the Prisma Gallery in Milan, the Galleria Appia Antica in Rome and the Galerie Kasper in Lausanne. Castellani, Manzoni, and Bonalumi embarked on a profound reevaluation of their artistic endeavors during this period, characterized by a commitment to critical engagement and artistic activism.
A significant milestone in this process was the founding of the magazine Azimuth on September 3, 1959, by Castellani and Manzoni. Housed at Piero Manzoni’s residence in Milan and printed at Antonio Maschera’s printing house, Azimuth aligned with the ethos of contemporary avant-garde publications. Just two months after its inception, the founders established the Azimut Gallery at 23 Via Clerici in Milan, providing a self-managed platform for artistic exploration and innovation. In 1960, Castellani held his inaugural solo exhibition at the Azimut Gallery. That same year, he participated in the group exhibition Monochrome Malerei at the Städtisches Museum in Leverkusen. In 1962, Castellani’s artistic journey continued with participations in group exhibitions in Brussels and at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, where he contributed to the Nul movement. He participated to the XXXII Venice Biennale in 1964, where he exhibited alongside other notable artists. Two years later, Castellani returned to the Venice Biennale with a solo exhibition. Notable participations in group exhibitions of international significance include: The Responsive Eye at MoMA New York (1965), the 8th São Paulo Biennial in Brazil (1965), Vitality of the Negative in Italian Art held in 1970 at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome and curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, Identité Italien. L’art en Italie depuis 1959 Curated by Germano Celant at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (1981), Programmed and Kinetic Art 1953-63 at the Palazzo Reale, Milan (1983), The Italian metamorphosis at the Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1994).
The 2000s saw major exhibitions in private galleries and public institutions, such as the 2001 group show Matter/Nothing, curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, at the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation in Venice, followed by Italian Belvedere- Trends lines in contemporary art 1945/2001 at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva. The same year, the Prada Foundation in Milan held an anthological exhibition curated by Germano Celant, and four years later, in 2005, Bruno Corà held an exhibition dedicated to Castellani’s work at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.
After a series of successes and awards, Enrico Castellani died in Celleno, in the province of Viterbo, Rome, on Dec. 1, 2017.