ENRICO CASTELLANI

The surface of his paintings is born from singular configurations. I refuse to see landscapes and valleys in them, and to say that Castellani is a geologist or a cartographer. It seems to me that Castellani’s art only attempts to embody abstract categories of thought.

—Bernard Blistène

Untitled (Superficie blu) (1961) is a rare example from Enrico Castellani’s expansive Superficie series. Created using ink and wax, the work emerged from a crucial period of experimentation taking place in the years following the initial Superficie in 1959, as Castellani familiarized himself with the possibilities of different media and materials. Bruno Corà has written about the unique effect of the works in Castellani’s oeuvre which departs from his regular use of acrylic on canvas, noting “surfaces that are in part opaque and in part transparent, as in a partial or selective radiography of an organism.” The use of wax in the present work emphasizes such an organic dimension even further, an important precedent in its construction of a skin-like surface that imparts depth to the otherwise opaque quality of ink.

ENRICO CASTELLANI
Untitled (Superficie blu)
1961
Ink and wax on canvas
© Enrico Castellani / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome