Blinky (Peter Heisterkamp) Palermo  (German, 1943-1977) 

Blinky Palermo (German, 1943–1977), born Peter Schwartze in Leipzig, was a visual artist and painter who worked with a variety of media in a Modernist style. His work is often characterized by geometric shapes and vibrant, saturated colors. In 1962, Palermo began studying art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he worked with the artist Joseph Beuys. Two years later, he took on the name “Blinky Palermo,” after the American alleged Mafioso. Palermo began to exhibit his artwork in 1968 in Germany, and after traveling to New York with fellow painter Gerhard Richter in 1970, he set up a studio there in 1973. Palermo incorporated an array of materials into his work. In 1964, he began to create a series of compositions called Stoffbilder (Cloth Pictures), which involved sewn strips of brightly colored, store-bought fabric attached to a canvas stretcher. In the late 1960s, he created murals (since destroyed), which were meticulously planned and recorded through preliminary drawings and photographs of installation space. Both reminiscent of and a departure from the Stoffbilder works, Palermo began a series of paintings in 1972 called Metallbilder (Metal Pictures), by applying acrylic paints to steel and aluminum. In 1976, Palermo created what would be his last work, To the People of New York City, as a tribute to his home at the time. The artist died suddenly in 1977, at the age of 33, while traveling in southwest Asia. Binky Palermo’s work was exhibited in more than 70 shows before his premature death. Retrospectives of his art have been held at the Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland in 1984, the Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany in 1993, and most recently at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.