“White does not exist in nature; it exists only on the palette, but as soon as it emerges, it takes on the colors of everything around it. It is not a true color; it feeds on reflections and light“. These are the words of Enrico Castellani, the artist behind Superficie bianca, a work executed on extroflexed canvas that will be auctioned in Auction 9 – Salmoiraghi Collection on March 23, 2025, Lot 61.

For Castellani, the artwork is conceived as an autonomous object, free from any figuration or narrative, created using exclusively painterly materials and following mathematical “progressions”—a system he valued for its impersonal, inexpressive, yet simultaneously concrete nature.

The Superfici serie

With the Estroflessioni series, which includes the Superfici, Castellani created monochrome works where forms are sculpted directly onto the surface by stretching the canvas outward. This technique enhances shadows, light points, and the three-dimensionality of the canvas, engaging with a geometric rhythm that shifts depending on the viewer’s perspective. Through prolonged observation, these works trigger a disorienting visual experience, inviting the observer to actively engage with the artwork. They are not meant to be merely seen but experienced, observed, and perceived from different angles, making the viewer an integral part of the creative process.

The Superfici series, to which the work presented at auction belongs, was a central element of Castellani’s career. He began producing these canvases in 1959, starting with Superficie nera in rilievo, and continued to develop them throughout his artistic journey. His work evolved from simple surfaces with central relief estroflessioni to angular pairings of two surfaces, to triptychs, and ultimately to canopy-like structures. Through this continuous transformation, he explored infinite variations of space—height, width, and depth—while remaining faithful to his original conceptual framework. These surfaces become silent and timeless, representations of an absolute, inexhaustible, and infinite space—what Castellani himself described as “that total inner space, free of contradictions, to which we all aspire”.

Auction 9 – Salmoiraghi Collection, Lot 61, Enrico Castellani, Superficie bianca

The creative process behind Enrico Castellani’s Superfici

His artistic process can be defined in two words: essential and rigorous. It begins with the construction of a wooden grid, onto which he fixes a regular series of vertical nails, covering the heads with plastic caps to prevent the canvas from tearing later. Next, he applies an untreated, raw cotton canvas, soaked in water and vinyl adhesive to enhance stability and tension, securing it with staples along the edges to avoid wrinkles or creases. The following step involves hammering additional nails on the front, followed by the application of multiple layers of acrylic paint. Between each coat, the surface is sanded to achieve a greater uniformity. The final result is a sequence of raised and recessed areas, artificially impressed onto the canvas, giving it a spatial significance. The artist explains: “To achieve this, I use monochrome surfaces that are as dematerialized as possible, imprinting a repetition of elements, with an alternation of rising and falling points, of positive and negative poles.”

Monochrome has the ability to expand freely in luminosity and optical energy, leading the artist to favor colors that best reflect light—such as white, yellow, silver, and gold. This choice creates a sense of disorientation and an impossibility of precise identification. For the artist, monochromy is essential to articulate light across the surface, allowing the image to continuously form and dissolve, depending on illumination and exposure.

During the creative process, the final result remains unknown to the artist. Despite the precision and control in execution, the outcome is never a static or self-contained object. Instead, it becomes an active and dynamic representation, modified by light and the viewer’s perception, engaging the spectator through its spatial interplay and sensory impact.

Enrico Castellani, the biography

Born in Castelmassa on August 4, 1930, he studied painting and sculpture at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels until 1956, and later pursued architecture at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de La Cambre.

In 1957, in Milan, he met leading figures of the Italian avant-garde, including Piero Manzoni, Lucio Fontana, Vincenzo Agnetti, and Agostino Bonalumi, and established connections with Yves Klein and the German artists Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, founders of the ZERO Group in Düsseldorf.

In 1958, he joined the Movimento Arte Nucleare, alongside Manzoni, Fontana, Picabia, and Bonalumi. In December 1959, together with Piero Manzoni, he inaugurated Galleria Azimut in Milan. That same month, they also launched the first issue of Azimuth, a magazine dedicated to supporting the activities of the nouveaux réalistes. Both the gallery and the magazine took their name from the mathematical concept of “azimuth”, referring to the angle between the apparent position of an object and a specific point of observation—a concept reflecting their interest in the relationship between the spectator and the object.

In his essay “Continuità a nuovo“, published in Azimuth, Castellani outlined the core principles of his artistic vision, which remained unchanged throughout his career: “The search for the only compositional criterion which, through the possession of an elementary entity—line, indefinitely repeatable rhythm, monochrome surface—is necessary to give the works the concreteness of infinity”.

In 1959, he exhibited his first Superficie Nera works, using a nail gun to shape the canvas, creating a raised structure that produced light and shadow effects through indentations and protrusions.

In 1964, his works were exhibited in a dedicated room at the Venice Biennale, and in 1968, he participated in Documenta 4 in Kassel. During the 1970s and 1980s, he expanded his materials, incorporating aluminum into his creations.

On December 1, 2017, Enrico Castellani passed away in Celleno.

Read also:

• The article dedicated to Paesaggio TV by Schifano
• Browse the catalogue of Auction 9 – Salmoiraghi Collection