Enrico Castellani

Galleria Tega, Milan
Galleria Seno, Milan
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Esslingen, Galerie der Stadt Esslingen, Villa Merkel, Zero Italian. Azimut/Azimuth 1959/60 in Mailand. Und Heute, 1995, p. 13, illustrated

Milan, Galleria Tega, Elementi Spaziali. Bonalumi, Castellani, Dadamaino, Scheggi, 2011, p. 46, illustrated

Renata Wirz and Federico Sardella, Eds., Enrico Castellani, Catalogo Ragionato, Vol. II, Milan 2012, p. 396, no. 291, illustrated

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is brighter and fresher in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Close inspection reveals very minor wear in some places where nails stretch the canvas from behind, notably in the top left quadrant. No restoration is apparent under ultraviolet light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Enrico Castellani was a leading voice of the Azimut Group in Milan and one of the most important and recognised Italian artists of the past fifty years. With his renowned breakthrough, Superfici, Castellani developed beyond the aesthetic of Art Informel and explored the emerging discourse of Minimal art. Created in 1969, Superficie Bianca is a superlative example of Castellani’s artistic methodology and practice. Composed of a brilliant white surface which has been imbued with a sensation of movement through the regular shaping of the canvas, the current lot reveals the complexity of Castellani’s technique: using a nail gun, the artist creates an undulating canvas that ripples elegantly within the space it occupies. The result is a work that combines clarity of form with a highly innovative utilisation of a two dimensional plane to appropriate an almost sculptural language. Germano Celant has written of the extraordinary effects of light that exist within works from the Superfici series: "Light illuminates the reliefs, creates shadows and reflections, flattens and highlights the surfaces, and thus confers existence on the painting. Therefore Castellani 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" (Exhibition Catalogue, Milan, Fondazione Prada, Enrico Castellani, 2001, p. 17).
In its sweeping purity of form and colour, Superficie Bianca reflects the primary concerns and ideals of the ZERO group, of which Castellani formed an integral part during its relatively brief existence during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The collection of artists who exhibited under the ZERO banner during this period – including Fontana, Otto Piene, Manzoni and Yves Klein amongst others – sought to transcend the limitations of conventional painting, seeking to discover an entirely new creative language unencumbered by extraneous concerns and traditional ideas of illustration. Piene declared in 1958: “Zero is the incommensurable zone in which the old state turns into the new” (Otto Piene, "Die Entstehung der Gruppe ‘Zero,’" The Times Literary Supplement, 3 September 1964). White was employed frequently for its properties as a ‘non-colour’ by artists who subscribed to the ZERO mentality: divorced from associations of objectivity Superficie Bianca encourages the viewer to look beyond the surface to posit their own ideals and theories onto a ‘blank’ canvas. Castellani spoke of the importance of white as a key element within his shaped canvas works: "For me, the question is that of creating a totally white surface outside any pictorial phenomenon, any intervention extraneous to the value of the surface: this is a white surface that is a white surface and nothing else. With the ‘lines’ there is not even the possible ambiguity of the picture: the line extends only in length, it runs to infinity, the only dimension of time […] There is nothing to say: one can only be"(the artist quoted in: Ibid., p. 45). Ultimately Superficie Bianca is an elegant encapsulation of Castellani’s ground-breaking attempts to forge an innovative and highly distinctive creative dialect.