Blinky Palermo was born Peter Schwarze in Leipzig in 1943. He 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. In Düsseldorf he befriended Gerhard Richter, Imi Knoebel and Sigmar Polke. In 1964 he chose the pseudonym Blinky Palermo. In 1970 he travelled with Richter for the first time to New York, where he became acquainted with Minimal Art and Abstract Expressionism. Palermo was represented at documenta 5 in Kassel in 1972, and in the following year he moved to New York. In 1975 he showed his work at the 13th São Paulo Biennale, and in 1976 he moved back to Düsseldorf. Palermo died at only thirty-four in 1977 while visiting Kurumba in the Maldives. Despite the brevity of his career, he left behind a highly varied, experimental oeuvre consisting of paintings, Environments and Object Art.
