Blinky Palermo: Retrospective 1964-1977

Organized by Dia Art Foundation and the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard), and curated by Lynne Cooke, Blinky Palermo: Retrospective 1964–1977 introduces American audiences to the influential German artist Blinky Palermo (1943–1977). Including more than sixty works, most of which have never been shown in North America, this comprehensive retrospective provides a fresh and in-depth examination of the evolution of the artist's aesthetic and illuminates the significance of his contributions to the field of postwar painting.

The first collaboration between the two largest museums in the Hudson Valley dedicated to art from the 1960s through the present, the exhibition will be shown both at Dia:Beacon and at CCS Bard. On view in the CCS Bard galleries will be the Objects, which Palermo created shortly after he graduated from Joseph Beuys's class at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in 1964, as well as the Stoffbilder (Cloth Pictures), and documentation of his Wall Drawings and Paintings. The installation at Dia:Beacon will be devoted to Palermo's Metal Pictures, dating from 1973 to 1977, which the artist developed while living in New York City.

This retrospective continues Dia's longstanding commitment to Blinky Palermo. Dia founder Heiner Friedrich represented Palermo through his Munich gallery in the mid-1960s and presented his first solo exhibition in 1968. In 1987, Dia inaugurated its exhibition space in Chelsea with a major show of works by Palermo, alongside those of Beuys and Imi Knoebel. Until the current tour, Dia:Beacon housed the most significant Palermo installation in the United States, featuring To the People of New York City(1976), a monumental painting in fifteen parts, which is also a centerpiece of this exhibition. Marieluise Hessel, co-founder of CCS Bard, with encouragement by Friedrich, collected works by Palermo, several of which are included in this retrospective.

Blinky Palermo was born Peter Schwarze in 1943 in Leipzig, where he and his twin brother, Michael, grew up as adopted children under the name Heisterkamp. In 1962 he entered the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he studied with Joseph Beuys, and in 1964 he adopted the name Blinky Palermo, which he appropriated from an American boxing manager. During his lifetime, Palermo participated in more than seventy exhibitions and represented Germany at the 13th São Paulo Biennial (1975). Posthumous retrospectives have been presented at the Kunstmuseum Winterthur (1984); the Kunstmuseum Bonn (1993); Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, in co-production with the Serpentine Gallery, London (2002–2003); and the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2007).

Blinky Palermo
Retrospective 1964-1977
Kurator: Lynne Cooke

Stationen:
31.10.2010 - 16.01.2011 Los Angeles County Museum of Art
24.02.2011 - 15.05.2011 Hirshhorn Museum, Washington
25.06.2011 - 31.10.2011 CCS Bard Hessel Museum, Annandale-on-Hudson
25.06.2011 - 31.10.2011 Dia:Beacon