Blinky Palermo

German artist Peter Heisterkamp, who named himself after the American mafioso Frank "Blinky" Palermo, is known for his objects, installations, and above all, the bright color fields of his fabric and metal pictures, which directly illustrate what they conceptually question: the sensual qualities of contemporary painting. In his short-lived but vividly impressive career in the ’60s and ’70s, Palermo questioned the nature of painting, its form, and its interplay with the very wall on which it is presented, finding in abstract expressionism’s exhibits something that remains ultimately a touchstone of his art—the inimitable “gesture.” Palermo pursued a concentration of his painting by reducing and minimizing the means of expression to the element of color.

Born in Leipzig, Germany in 1943, Palermo began his artistic training in 1961 in Münster’s Werkkunstschule, an arts and crafts school. In 1962, he transferred to the art academy in Düsseldorf, where he studied first under Bruno Goller, then Joseph Beuys, and befriended Gerhard Richter, Imi Knoebel, and Sigmar Polke. Palermo moved to New York in 1973, four years before his death. While many of his German contemporaries felt threatened by invading American art, Palermo responded to it, introducing a number of his Dusseldorf friends, including Richter, to the big names of New York painting. Work by the artist is represented in museum collections worldwide, including Dia Art Foundation, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; The Menil Collection, Houston; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Tate, London; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.