Enrico Castellani

Galerie Meert-Rihoux, Brussels
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1996

Brussels, Galerie Meert-Rihoux, Enrico Castellani, 1996

Renata Wirz and Federico Sardella, Eds., Enrico Castellani, Catalogo Ragionato, Vol II, Milan 2012, p. 516, no. 729, illustrated

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the overall tonality is slightly warmer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Close inspection reveals evidence of very light handling isolated in places to the extreme outer edges, light wear to the tips of a few of the protruding elements, and a pinhead-sized media accretion towards the centre of the extreme right-facing overturn edge, not affecting the main image. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
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With its sumptuously rhythmic pattern and elegant monochromatic appearance, Superficie Bianca represents the profound explorations of space and form that were at the forefront of artistic concerns in the 1960s, and which are at the centre of Enrico Castellani’s influential oeuvre. Blending such concerns with a subtle lyricism and poetic quality, the present work is an excellent example of Castellani’s late work and his iconic white paintings, which, in Germano Celant’s words, “could not fail to gradually approach its splendour through the use of the absolute colour white, which radiates, slides across and unifies the surface and at the same time functions as a register of total freedom" (Germano Celant quoted in: Exhibition Catalogue, Milan, Fondazione Prada, Enrico Castellani, 2001, p. 17).

As a seminal figure in post-war European art-history, Enrico Castellani has over the past five decades redefined our understanding of painting through an extensive exploration of its physical space. Lucio Fontana had redefined pictorial space by breaking up the picture plane through slashes and holes in the canvas that created a simultaneously real and illusionistic space beyond its immediate surface, Castellani in turn, then extended the canvas back into the physical space of the viewer. In dialogue with his European contemporaries, but also with American artists such as Donald Judd and Frank Stella, Castellani was one of the key artists who blurred the boundaries between painting and sculpture, and radically redefined our understanding of medium specificity.

Having founded the Azimut Gallery in Milan with Piero Manzoni in 1959, Castellani was at the centre of the post-war European avant-gardes. After the heavy art-informel of the previous generation, this new wave of artists proposed an alternative understanding of art, which, like their American contemporaries, was increasingly self-referential. Symbolism and heavy painterly styles were abandoned in favour of a more pure approach to art-making that asserted the individual materiality and objectivity of the work, which resonated with a whole generation of artists - from Günther Uecker, Otto Piene and Heinz Mack in Germany, to Yves Klein and the Nouveaux Realistes in France, and Castellani’s own contemporaries in Italy: Agostino Bonalumi, Paolo Scheggi, Turi Simeti. Many of these artists were extremely experimental, and reacted against established traditions not only aesthetically, but also in their relentless experimentation with materials. New mediums were introduced and historical materials re-purposed in unexpected ways, with Castellani championing the use of nails to twist an ancient material into captivating new compositions.

The present work is not only an excellent example of Castellani’s interest in the three-dimensionality of the canvas through the captivating patterns created by the nails, but also violates the traditionally square format of paintings. Diverging from this ancient convention, Superficie Bianca is at once elegant yet radical in appearance, perfectly capturing the artistic revolution that changed the face of post-war Italian art.