AR BLINKY PALERMO (GERMAN, 1943-1977) Ohne Titel Offset lithograph printed in colours, 1970, on wove, signed, dated and numbered 77/250 in pencil, published by Verein Progressiver Galerien, Cologne, the full sheet, 447 x 317mm (17 5/8 x 12 1/2in)(SH) (unframed)
Blinky Palermo (1943-1977) Ohne Titel. Gewidmet: Thelonious Monk (Untitled. Dedicated: Thelonious... (i) mirror laid on painted plywood (ii) painted plywood each: 8 ¼ x 12 ½ x 1 ¼in. (21 x 31.8 x 3.3cm.)
Blinky Palermo (B. 1943-1977) Untitled (House) signed and dated 'Palermo 1965' (lower left) watercolour and graphite on paper 5 7/8 x 8¼in (15 x 20.8cm.) Executed in 1965
PALERMO, BLINKY (PETER HEISTERKAMP) 1943 Leipzig - 1977 Kurumba/Malediven Palermo - Objekte. 1973. Katalog des Städtischen Museums Mönchengladbach. 31 Abbildungstafeln, teilweise in Farbe, und 3 Texttafeln. In einer kartonierten Box: 20,3 x 16 x 3cm. Ex. 94/440. - Deckblatt mit zwei Bräunungsflecken. Alle übrigen Blätter in sehr gutem Zustand. Box mit leichten Gebrauchsspuren.
PALERMO, BLINKY (PETER HEISTERKAMP) 1943 Leipzig - 1977 Kurumba/Malediven Miniaturen. 1976. Einricht-Andruck zu "Miniaturen II". 1 farbiger Prägedruck und 1 Fond für weiteren Prägedruck. Je ca. 7,3 x 3,8cm (40 x 18,5cm). Verso von fremder Hand bezeichnet. Rahmen. - Minimale Knickspuren. Leichter Bräunungsfleck in der oberen rechten Ecke. Minimaler Bräunungsfleck in der unteren linken Ecke. Verso leichte Verschmutzungen. Reste alter Montierung in der Mitte. Vgl. Wvz. Jahn, Nr. 37. English Text: Palermo, Blinky (Peter Heisterkamp) 1943 Leipzig - 1977 Kurumba/Maldives Miniatures. 1976. Test print for "Miniaturen II". 1 coloured embossed print and one ground for a further embossed print. Each ca. 7,3 x 3,8cm (40 x 18,5cm). Verso inscribed by an unknown hand. -Minor creases. A slight light stain in the upper right corner. Minor light stain in the lower left corner. Verso with slight stains and the remains of a former mounting in the center. Literature: Cf. cat.rais. Jahn, no. 37
B. 1932 AND 1943-1977 UNTITLED each diptych: signed and dated 1970 by both artists on the reverse oil on canvas, two diptychs each diptych: 59 x 128 in. 150 x 325 cm.
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION 1943 - 1977 RECHTER WINKEL signed, titled and dated 68 on the reverse oil on canvas laid down on wood 57 by 38cm. 22 3/8 by 15in.
Blinky Palermo (1943-1977) Untitled signed and dated 'Palermo 70' (lower centre) crayon, pencil and collage on paper 24 7/8 x 33½in. (63 x 85cm.) Executed in 1970
BLINKY PALERMO (1943-1977) Graue Scheibe, blaues Dreieck (Jahn 5) screenprint in colors, 1970, on wove paper, signed and dated in pencil, numbered 9/10, with full margins, light-staining, otherwise generally in very good condition, framed S. 27½ x 39 3/8 in. (699 x 1000 mm.)
BLINKY PALERMO 1943 - 1977 GRAUE SCHEIBE (GREY DISC) signed, numbered 5/20 , dated 70 and inscribed To ben oil on canvas laid down on wood 13.5 by 26cm. 5 1/4 by 10 1/4 in.
BLINKY PALERMO 1943 - 1977 OHNE TITEL (UNTITLED) signed, titled and dated 1966 on the reverse oil on canvas laid down on wood 124 by 16cm. 48 3/4 by 6 1/4 in.
Palermo, Blinky (Peter Heisterkamp) 1943 Leipzig - 1977 Kurumba/Maldives 3-teilige Miniatur. 1972. Colour foil embossing on laid paper. 7,2 x 11,8cm (40 x 27cm). Number 72/100. Signed and dated. Framed. - Pale light-staining within frame window. Verso traces of former mounting on the sheet edges. Cat.rais. Jahn, No.32. The sheet was puiblished as a 'Jahresgabe' by the KUB Kunstverein Düsseldorf. Verso numbered.
BLINKY PALERMO 1943 - 1977 STOFFBILD, ROT-ROSA signed twice, titled, dated twice 1966 and 67, and inscribed 78 by 80cm. on the stretcher synthetic fabric on stretcher 78 by 80cm. 30 3/4 by 31 1/2 in.
Palermo, Blinky (Peter Heisterkamp) 1943 Leipzig - 1977 Kurumba/Maldives Untitled "mit Komma".1971. Colour serigraph on offset card. 33,3 x 55,7cm. (48 x 70,5cm). Numbered 51/100, signed and dated. Edition Staeck, Heidelberg (Ed.). Framed. Cat. rais. Jahn, 18. - Verso with remains of former mounting in the corners. Otherwise in very good condition.
BLINKY PALERMO Leipzig 1943 - 1977 Kurumba/Malediven FENSTER 1970 Unten rechts signiert und datiert Palermo 70 Serigraphie in Schwarz auf Karton. 61 x 86 cm.
Blinky Palermo (d.i. Peter Heisterkamp) Leipzig 1943 - 1977 Kurumba 4 Prototypen. 4 Siebdrucke. 1970. Mappenformat: 63,0 : 61,0 cm. Signiert u. datiert. Jahn 7. - Exemplar 57/90. - Je 1 Blatt in Grün, Schwarz, Grau u. Blau gedruckt. - Die vollständige Folge, bei Heiner Friedrich, München erschienen. - Jeweils auf Bristolkarton im Format 60,0 : 60,0 cm. - Lose Bll. mit 1 Bl. Druckvermerk in Orig Umschlag. (266)
Visual Poems, Duisberg, Germany, Guido Hildebrandt, 1972 the complete set of five signed screenprints in colors, hors-texte, text in German and justification, on Aquarellbüten, signed by the author on the justification, from the edition of 100, all with full margins, bound (as issued), traces of minor surface soiling, otherwise in very good condition, original board slipcase. 403 x 270 mm. album
1943-1977 KOMPOSITION BLAU-ROT AUF WEISS 68 7/8 x 47 1/4 in. 175 x 120 cm. signed, titled and dated 1965 on the reverse oil on canvas PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist in the late 1960s EXHIBITED Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Künste; Munich, Kunstraum München, Blinky Palermo, June - November 1993, cat. no. 78, p. 64, illustrated in color LITERATURE Thordis Moeller, Palermo: Bilder und Objekte, Bonn, 1995, cat. no. 32, illustrated in color NOTE "Throughout his entire oeuvre, Palermo attached the utmost importance to the role of colour in art, and especially to the part which colour plays in the process of abstraction. The energies inherent in colour are harnessed in a whole diversity of ways; their opposites are put to the test optically and their combined strength is made visible." (Klaus Schrenk, 'Zum Künstlerischen Werk Von Palermo' in Thordis Moeller, Ed., Palermo: Bilder und Objekte, Bonn 1995, Vol. 1, p. 33) Blinky Palermo is an 'artist's artist' whose inestimable contribution to the lexis and praxis of twentieth-century art has been revered by the international artistic community for decades. However the wider public is only just awakening to the significance of this major figurehead who in his tragically short career categorically redefined conventional notions of painting as a planar rectangular surface conveying an image. With the recent revival of painting, the extended parameters of the medium as practiced by many artists - both established and emerging - and the continuing fascination with the more archeological aspects of 1960s German art activity, this major work from 1965 feels fresher than ever. With its exacting economy of visual resource and two-dimensional configuration of chromatic fields, Komposition Blau-Rot auf Weiß is an archetypal example of Palermo's early interrogations of the traditional picture format, fitting squarely in the forefront of what was adventurous then and what remains so now. At the time of execution, Palermo was a student at the Düsseldorf Akademie where he studied under Gerhard Hoehme, K.O.Gotz and, most significantly, Joseph Beuys whose didactic tutoring and lively discussion extended the traditional limits of aesthetic perception. It was Joseph Beuys who so violently and publicly broke down the barriers to do with material, form, content and actions. One of the original Beuysritteren, or Knights of Beuys, it was at the Akademie that the artist, whose real name is Peter Heisterkamp, assumed his sobriquet Blinky Palermo, named after the American boxing promoter and mafioso who was then famous as Sonny Liston's trainer. During those halcyon years in the libertarian atmosphere at the centre of the Düsseldorf art scene, Palermo was an early cohort of Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke, with whom he shared studios and engaged in ribald debate about the available prototypes of abstraction: on the one hand the semantic codes of Abstract Expressionism and on the other the reductive processes of Minimalism. The overbearing atmosphere at the Düsseldorf Akademie was of critical opposition to classic forms of art, witnessing the nascent phases of Performance and Pop Art. While there, Palermo also participated in the highly disruptive Fluxus movement alongside, among others, Henning Christiansen. Despite the potency of this intoxicating atmosphere, Palermo's young oeuvre holds an originality and integrity that was impervious to the artistic influences of his time. Palermo approached his work from a practical rather than theoretical basis, always working from his own experience. Due to his extremely reserved character, he distrusted all written statements and manifestos about his art and he rarely committed his thoughts to writing or even verbal expression. Resolutely a trend-setter rather than a follower, Palermo did not base his work on any theoretical concept that might reflect the ideas imparted by Beuys, nor did he seek to relate the social situation that prevailed in those years, as was the wont of many of his peers. Rather he embraced the unconventional mode of teaching and, seeking his own, individualistic path, he set about unconventional ways of presenting an immediate visual idea without the interference of illusory space. In Komposition Blau-Rot auf Weiß, Palermo's artistic vision is so distilled that it is hard to achieve verbal equivalence: the combined interplay of geometric form and the forceful presence of local colours produce an aesthetic phenomenon whose subtlety can hardly be expressed through the medium of language. A systematic analysis would destroy the visual cohesion of form and colour, thereby depriving the work of that potential openness which can be realised only through the combined action of material form and spiritual effect. It is in this regard that Palermo's oeuvre epitomises Beuys' theory of the poetical idea, a theory which induces us to perceive the phenomenon of form and colour as a purely aesthetic concept. The physical presence of colour and the immaterial effect which it seems to create together permit the viewer to experience the often inexplicable character of art as a spiritual force. As Anne Ramier has stated: "Palermo's ultimate achievement may be said to be his liberation of form and colour from subordination to a greater authorially arranged compositional whole or from association with representational imagery. In every phase of his career he proposed alternative methods by which, in effect, to redraw the line bewteen real and painted space." (Anne Rorimer, 'Blinky Palermo: Objects, Stofbilder, Wall Paintings' in Exh. Cat. Barcelona, Museo d'Art Contemporani Blinky Palermo, 2002, p. 51) This is beautifully emblematised in Komposition Blau-Rot auf Weiß, a work which more than any other needs to be seen in the flesh to be fully appreciated. This ethereal yet robustly painted canvas with its intuitively placed black rectangle and cooly reductivist vertical stripes approximates the distilled perfection of expression which is the cornerstone of his practice. This surprisingly complex canvas shows him experimenting with constructivist principles of order and belies the influence of Kasimir Malevich, whose brochure Die gegenstandlose Welt was republished in German in 1962. It is one of the principal ideas of modernism to achieve movement and spatiality on the picture plane merely by the use of colour and form whilst completely waiving centralised perspective. Here, the contrast between the light and dark colours, set off by a thin horizontal line of vibrant blue along the upper limit of the black rectangle, generates in the viewer's perception an energy which divides the picture plane into foreground and background. At the same time, the strict geometry of the forms is deliberately disturbed by interventions of the artist's hand which release kinetic energies that create a delicate, hovering equilibrium and engender the sensation of rhythm. This arrangement of different areas of colour creates a visual effect of spatiality which demonstrates how polar elements - light and dark, mobility and immobility, flatness and depth - interact to create a clearly determined visual effect. The composition acquires extraordinary presence, setting off an interplay of physically guided perception and immaterial sensation which calls into question the very methods of traditional canvas painting.
Silkscreen printed in colours, 1971, signed and dated in pencil, numbered 47/100, on wove, with margins, in apparently good condition (unexamined out of frame) Added: a silkscreen printed in colours by the same artist, 1970, signed and dated in pencil, numbered 66/200, on wove, with margins, in apparently good condition (unexamined out of frame)
Five embossings printed in colours, 1972, each signed and dated in pencil, on wove, with margins, printed by Tünn Konerding, Essen, published by Galerie Heiner, München, all in good condition, with the paper folder, numbered 17, from an edition of 75, in good condition apart from some light handling marks
signed and dated "Palermo 69" on the reverse dyed cotton over wooden stretcher 78 3/4 x 78 3/4 in. (200 x 200 cm) executed in 1969 PROVENANCE Galerie Heiner Friedrich, MUNICH Private collection, GERMANY EXHIBITED Museum der Bildenden Künste Leipzig and Kunstraum München (Auswahl), BLINKY PALERMO, June 6-November 20, 1993, p. 78, no. 85 MOCHENGLADBACH, Abteimuseum (on extended loan) LITERATURE G. Storck, DIE STOFFBILDER VON PALERMO, KREFELD, 1977, no. 25 T. Moeller, PALERMO: BILDER UND OBJEKTE, Vol. I, BONN, 1995, no. 112 (illustrated) In 1965, while still a master student of Joseph Beuys at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, Blinky Palermo created his first STOFFBILDER or cloth pictures, and continued to produce them for the next several years. Palermo constructed these works from wide strips of fabric that were stitched together according to the artist's instructions. Usually comprising two or three different colored panels, the sewn pieces of fabric were ultimately stretched like a canvas to create stacked, horizontal registers of pure color. Palermo's decision to use fabric may have been partially influenced by his teacher, Beuys, who already incorporated felt into his sculptures and performances by 1965. Felt, for Beuys, was a biographically loaded material connected to certain traumatic events in his personal life. Palermo's interest in fabric, by contrast, did not include this same sort of personal investment. Indeed, he seems to have valued the high degree of artistic self-effacement that his STOFFBILDER generated. Quite unlike a painted canvas, Palermo's cloth pictures offer little, if any, variation in tone and reveal no traces of painterly nuance or inflection across their surfaces; they instead afford the viewer a strictly optical experience of pure, undiluted color. Palermo's STOFFBILDER often recall the paintings of Mark Rothko, an artist whom he held in particularly high esteem. When traveling throughout America by car in 1974, Palermo and Imi Knoebel, a fellow student of Beuys, spent several days at the recently christened Rothko Chapel in Houston. Not unlike Rothko's late paintings in Houston, Palermo's STOFFBILDER force the viewer to phenomenologically consider the horizontal line. By reducing many of their works to stacked, geometric fields of color, both artists call attention to the edges and boundaries of these planes. Yet, Palermo's STOFFBILDER are distinguished by their far more rigorous geometry and the absolute uniformity of color inherent to their fabric constructions. These qualities ultimately heighten the tension between perception and material reality. "The core of Palermo's horizon experience is essentially an intuitive and immediate consciousness of the uncertainty of the conditions on the peripheries of perception, where line, plane, and space resist their logical definitions and become fictional elements" (M. Wechsler, BLINKY PALERMO, NEW YORK, 1989).
Palermo Blinky Palermo 1943-1977 UNTITLED signed and dated 70; signed and dated 1970 on the reverse oil, tape and photograph on board 40 by 50 cm. 15 3/4 by 19 5/8 in. Provenance Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner in 1970 Literature Thordis Moeller, Palermo: Bilder und Objekte, Bonn 1995, no. 131,
