- Blinky Palermo
Blinky Palermo, born Peter Schwarze, aka Peter Heisterkamp (
June 2 ,1943 -February 18 ,1977 ), was a German abstract painter.Schwarze (whose last name became Heisterkamp when he was adopted as an infant) was given his outlandish name in 1964, during his studies with
Joseph Beuys at theKunstakademie Düsseldorf . The name refers to an AmericanMafioso and boxing promoter who was famous at the time for "owning"Sonny Liston . According to legend, it was given to Schwarze at the suggestion of Beuys when the famous teacher noticed the physical resemblance between Schwarze and the gangster.Blinky Palermo was famous for his spare monochromatic canvases and "fabric paintings" made from simple lengths of colored material cut, stitched and stretched over a frame. Later in his career, he would develop his work "in situ" for large-scale architectural installations, often incorporating wall drawings. His works bear a surface relationship to Constructivism and
Minimalism , but theModernist sensibility is also undermined by a sophisticated sense of humor and his insistence on the painterly and expressive, as evidenced in his poetic titles.In 1973, he moved his practice to
New York City where he remained until his mysterious and untimely death while on vacation in theMaldives in 1977. One of his last and most famous works is a painting in 15 parts composed of 40 panels, titled "To the People of New York City " (1976-77).Further reading
* "The ballad of Blinky Palermo" by Brooks Adams in
Art in America , June-July, 2005
* "Palermo", Edited by: Susanne Küper, Ulrike Groos, Vanessa Joan Müller. With numerous colour illustrations and installation views of the exhibition, texts by Matthew Antezzo, Yve-Alain Bois, Anne-Marie Bonnet, Benjamin Buchloh, Lynne Cooke, Erich Franz, Heiner Friedrich, Liam Gillick, Pia Gottschaller, Alan Johnston, John Knight, Susanne Küper, Thomas Lange, Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith, Christine Mehring, Ernst Mitzka, David Reed, Ilka and Andreas Ruby, Thomas Scheibitz, Logan Sisley, Ann Temkin, Lawrence Weiner, Moritz Wesseler, Helen Winkler and others.External links
* [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,11710,926737,00.html 2003 Review in the Guardian]
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=2317&page=1&sole=y&collab=y&attr=y&sort=default&tabview=bio Blinky Palermo at the Tate Collection]
* [http://www.kunsthalle-duesseldorf.de/e/service/kataloge/index.html]
* Exposition about Blinky Palermo organized by the "Zenralarchiv des internationalen Kunsthandels": [http://www.zadik.info/]
* [http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A4474&page_number=1&template_id=6&sort_order=1] Blinky Palermo at the MoMA New York
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