
Enrico Castellani
Enrico Castellani
Enrico Castellani (1930–2017) was a catalytic figure in the European postwar avant-garde, co-founding the experimental journal, Azimuth, and the Galleria Azimut with Piero Manzoni. Together, they organized innovative exhibitions and published essays that provided alternatives to the dogmatic ideologies of Tachisme and Art Informel, which dominated the European art scene at the time. Through his art and writings, Castellani advanced an approach to painting that refuted the traditional conception of the canvas as a transparent window, opening his work onto a new space of topographical abstraction that engaged notions of space, time, infinity, and flux.
Born in Castelmassa, Italy, in 1930, Castellani studied art and architecture at Belgium’s Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts and École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture et des Arts Décoratifs de la Cambre in the early 1950s. After moving to Milan in 1956, he began to make art that challenged the conventional separation of painting, sculpture, and architecture, searching instead for a paradigm that combined aspects of all three. In 1959, he completed the first of his celebrated Superficie, a series defined by the rhythmic protrusions and recessions of a monochrome surface, typically stretched taut over a pattern of nails. Following a string of successful exhibitions throughout the 1960s, he settled in the small hamlet of Celleno, Italy, in 1973, where he would live and work for the rest of his life. While the purview of his practice expanded to include a variety of materials and formal concerns, his pursuit of a poetic coalescence of painting, sculpture, and architecture never wavered.
Castellani’s works are included in numerous major public collections, including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Fondazione Prada, Milan; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma (MACRO), Rome; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. He represented Italy at the Venice Biennales of 1964, 1966, and 1984. In 2010, he became the first Italian artist to receive the Praemium Imperiale for Painting, an honor awarded by the Emperor of Japan. Castellani’s work was centrally featured in ZERO: Countdown to Tomorrow, 1950s-60s, a 2014-15 exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, that focused on Group Zero, an international network of artists who pioneered new approaches to light, movement, and space in the aftermath of World War II.
We have had the extraordinary privilege of working with Enrico Castellani since 2007. The gallery has curated several exhibitions of his work in New York and London, including Local History: Castellani, Judd, Stella in 2014-15. We have also published books, including Enrico Castellani, which features a 2009 interview between the artist and Hans Ulrich Obrist, offering meaningful insights into the themes and concepts that informed his oeuvre. While mourning his passing, Lévy Gorvy is committed to championing Castellani’s legacy, ensuring that his art and his vital spirit live on.
Selected Works
Video
Enrico Castellani
March 22, 2017
February 9 – March 26, 2016
The first solo exhibition in London by Enrico Castellani, which explores the ways in which painting can occupy three-dimensional space by showcasing recent as well as historical works by the artist, most of which were on view in London for the first time.
Exhibitions

Enrico Castellani: Interior Space
New York
April 7 - May 21, 2016

Enrico Castellani
London
February 9 - March 26, 2016

Sotto Voce
London
February 9 - April 18, 2015

Local History: Castellani, Judd, Stella
New York
October 30, 2014 - January 17, 2015

Local History: Castellani, Judd, Stella
London
October 13, 2014 - January 17, 2015
Publications
Selected Press
Artforum | ENRICO CASTELLANI (1930–2017)
February 2, 2018
The Guardian | Enrico Castellani obituary
December 17, 2017
The New York Times | Enrico Castellani, Artist in the Postwar Avant-Garde, Dies at 87
December 12, 2017
Artnet | Italian Avant-Garde Painter Enrico Castellani, Who Helped Pioneer the Zero Movement, Has Died at 87
December 4, 2017
Blouin Artinfo | Works by important Italian Postwar Avant-Garde artists at Lévy Gorvy New York
July 26, 2017
Christie's | 10 things to know about Enrico Castellani
April 6, 2017
New York Times | The Look of ’70s SoHo — Captured in One Apartment
February 9, 2017
StyleZeitgeist | Enrico Castellani at Dominique Levy
April 15, 2016
Wallpaper | A show at Dominique Levy proves Enrico Castellani's cutting-edge credentials
April 13, 2016
Art Bahrain | Enrico Castellani
April 8, 2016
Mousse Magazine | Enrico Castellani “Interior Space” at Dominique Lévy, New York
April 3, 2016
ARTE | Castellani La concretezza dell'infinito
March 1, 2016
Kaleidoscope | Boom!
February 19, 2016
Blouin Artinfo | Enrico Castellani’s Landmark Solo Show at Dominique Levy London
February 17, 2016
Il Sole 24 Ore | Manzoni and Castellani, the pioneers of the avant-garde in London
February 12, 2016
Wallpaper | Scope for contemplation: Enrico Castellani at Dominique Lévy Gallery
February 9, 2016
Financial Times | Critics' Choice: Enrico Castellani
February 7, 2016
Widewalls | Enrico Castellani for the First Time in London with Dominique Lévy
February 4, 2016
The Telegraph | Art Sales: London’s international art scene
January 26, 2016
FT How To Spend It | Enrico Castellani at Dominique Lévy
January 25, 2016
THE ART NEWSPAPER | Enrico Castellani says ‘yes’ to rare solo show
October 14, 2015
Huffington Post | Sotto Voce: The Best Art Show in London Today
March 12, 2015
The Arts Desk | Sotto Voce, Dominique Lévy
February 14, 2015
Apollo Magazine | Pure abstraction: ‘Sotto Voce’ and the appeal of the abstract white relief
February 10, 2015
TimeOut London | Sotto Voce
February 10, 2015
Architectural Digest | Abstract White Reliefs are the Subject of a London Gallery Show
January 31, 2015
Aesthetica | Sotto Voce, Dominique Lévy Gallery, London
January 9, 2015
Art and Photography | Castellani, Judd, Stella - Dominique Lévy
December 28, 2014
The New York Times | 3 Artists Exploring 3 Dimensions
December 18, 2014
World Sculpture News | A Transformative Period
November 30, 2014
Inventory Magazine | LOCAL HISTORY: CASTELLANI, JUDD, STELLA
November 19, 2014
The New York Times | At Galleries, Slices of Art History
October 23, 2014
Glass Magazine | Local history – examining a pivotal intersection between three postwar artists
October 22, 2014
Huffington Post | Beyond Frieze: Top 5 Satellite Events in London This Week
October 17, 2014
Blouin Artinfo | 18 Must-See Gallery Shows During Frieze Week in London
October 14, 2014
Vogue | 5 Shows to See in London During Frieze Week (That Aren’t at Frieze)
October 14, 2014
Art on a Postcard | Love from Mayfair
October 14, 2014
Apollo Magazine | London Diary: 13 October
October 13, 2014
Blouin Artinfo | Enrico Castellani, One of Minimalism’s Fathers
October 7, 2014
Artists
Terry Adkins
Vincenzo Agnetti
Alexander Calder
Enrico Castellani
Dan Colen
Willem de Kooning
Lucio Fontana
Gego
David Hammons
Yves Klein
Seung-taek Lee
Tsuyoshi Maekawa
François Morellet
Robert Motherwell
Senga Nengudi
Roman Opalka
Adrian Piper
Carol Rama
Martial Raysse
Peter Regli
Germaine Richier
Chung Sang-Hwa
Karin Schneider
Joel Shapiro
Kazuo Shiraga
Pierre Soulages
Pat Steir
Frank Stella
Günther Uecker
Zao Wou-Ki
Specializing in Works By
- Carl Andre
- Diane Arbus
- Francis Bacon
- Jean-Michel Basquiat
- Louise Bourgeois
- Alberto Burri
- John Chamberlain
- Joseph Cornell
- Gino de Dominicis
- PETER DOIG
- Jean Dubuffet
- Lucian Freud
- Alberto Giacometti
- Gilbert & George
- Arshile Gorky
- Adolph Gottlieb
- Philip Guston
- Jasper Johns
- Donald Judd
- Ellsworth Kelly
- Anselm Kiefer
- Franz Kline
- Jeff Koons
- Barbara Kruger
- Yayoi Kusama
- Gerald Laing
- Fernard Leger
- Roy Lichtenstein
- René Magritte
- Piero Manzoni
- Brice Marden
- Agnes Martin
- Joan Miró
- Piet Mondrian
- Barnett Newman
- Claes Oldenburg
- Pablo Picasso
- Sigmar Polke
- Jackson Pollock
- Richard Prince
- Robert Rauschenberg
- Ad Reinhardt
- Anselm Reyle
- Gerhard Richter
- Mark Rothko
- Ed Ruscha
- Robert Ryman
- Salvatore Scarpitta
- Thomas Schütte
- Richard Serra
- Cindy Sherman
- Clyfford Still
- Rudolf Stingel
- Cy Twombly
- Andy Warhol
- Tom Wesselmann
- Christopher Wool