Albeit short lived, Blinky Palermo's prolific career was an exceptional exploration of colour and form. Palermo straddled the dynamic West German art world of the 1960s, and the New York colour field painting of Mark Rothko and Ellsworth Kelly, whilst harkening back to the Suprematism of Kazimir Malevich.
Read MoreBlinky Palermo was born in Leipzig, Germany in 1943. Originally named Peter Schwarze, he and his twin brother were soon adopted and took their new family's name, Heisterkamp. He studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Joseph Beuys from 1962 to 1967. Midway through his studies in 1964, Peter Heisterkamp was inspired to rename himself after the recently imprisoned American mobster Frank 'Blinky' Palermo, infamous for fixing boxing matches.
The rechristened artist quickly gained notoriety for his minimalist canvases, staging his first solo show at Galerie Friedrich & Dahlem in Munich in 1966. In 1970, Palermo visited New York with another future mainstay of German contemporary art, Gerhard Richter, and relocated there three years later.
Tragically, Palermo's early and late life are nearly one and the same—he died mysteriously in 1977 at the age of 33 on a trip to the Maldives, perhaps from drug use, although the cause remains uncertain.
Blinky Palermo's works can generally be organised into four modes: 'Objects'; Stoffbilder (or cloth/fabric pictures); wall paintings, and acrylic-on-metal. 'Objects' consisted of variously shaped, monochromatic painted canvases, from the self explanatory Blaue Scheibe und Stab (Blue Disk and Staff) (1968) to the highly abstracted Landschaft (Landscape) (1966).
With Stoffbilder, Palermo returned to the conventional rectangular canvas. Rather than paint them, however, he constructed these works by sewing together bands of commercial fabrics. While 'Objects' often consisted of found objects, Stoffbilder presented a study of colours found in local department stores.
Many of Blinky Palermo's wall paintings were made in situ, culminating in more than 20 murals across Europe. Among the most notable include the stairwell of the Edinburgh School of Art, and a gallery of blue triangles at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, both in 1970. This interest in form became increasingly architectural, as Palermo and Richter submitted a joint design for the stadium for the 1972 Munich Olympics.
After Blinky Palermo permanently relocated to New York City in 1973, his adoration for his new home made a distinct impact on his practice. He created various metal pictures, or Metallbilder, continuing to push the flat surface toward three-dimensionality with aluminium panels that jutted off the wall, naming each work after various New York locales: Wooster Street, 14th Street, Coney Island.
The year before his death, Palermo completed what has been termed his 'magnum opus'. Posthumously entitled To the People of New York City, after the dedication scrawled on the back of each of the 40 monochromatic aluminium panels, this work consists of 15 rhythmic compositions of red, black, and yellow, echoing Palermo's native German flag. It was only found in his studio after his death, and has been most notably exhibited by the Dia Art Foundation in 1987 and again in 2019.
Selected solo exhibitions include Palermo (Peter Heisterhamp), Städtisches Kunstmuseum, Bonn (1981); Palermo: Oeuvres 1963–1977, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1985); Blinky Palermo, MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona and Serpentine Gallery, London (2002–3); Blinky Palermo: Retrospective 1964–1977, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, Dia:Beacon, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2010–2011); and Palermo—who knows the beginning and who knows the end, Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Münster and Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2011).
Selected group exhibitions include the 13th São Paulo Biennial (1975); documenta 5 and 6, Kassel (1972, 1977); 37th, 38th, and 53rd Venice Biennale (1976, 1978, 2009); An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York (1984); The Romantic Spirit in German Art 1790–1990, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Hayward Gallery, London, and Haus der Kunst, Munich (1994–5); and Germany Divided: Baselitz and His Generation: From the Duerckheim Collection, British Museum, London (2014).
Rachel Kubrick | Ocula | 2021
