Blinky Palermo was born Peter Schwarze in Leipzig in 1943. He studied with Joseph Beuys at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and, in 1964, appropriated the name “Blinky Palermo” from an American boxing promoter and Mafioso. Before his death at age 33 in 1977, Palermo participated in more than seventy exhibitions and represented Germany at the São Paulo Bienal in 1975. He had posthumous retrospectives at the Kunstmuseum Winterthur (1984) and the Kunstmuseum Bonn (1993). Most recently Blinky Palermo: Retrospective 1964–1977 organized by Dia:Beacon and the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College traveled to several North American locations. That show, split into two parts, will be on view in New York at Dia:Beacon and at CCS Bard through the end of October.
