Blinky Palermo

The Blinky Palermo retrospective organized by Bernhard Bürgi for the Kunstmuseum Winterthur in 1984–85 became something of a legend. The first retrospective of Palermo’s work to be mounted since then (at the Kunstmuseum in Bonn) was also the occasion for the publication of the first book (compiled by Thordis Moeller) to bring together Palermo’s paintings, sculptures, and drawings.

Palermo was unusually careful with the installation of his exhibits; for him it was almost a ritualistic process. He placed considerable value on presenting each group of works in isolation from the others. The curators

print December 1995

Ludwig Bette

In his exhibition “Eisenglimmer” (“Micaceous iron ore,” but more generally “Iron glimmers”), Ludwig Bette restricted his palette to black, white, and various shades of gray. Along with titanium white and acrylic gel, he used micaceous iron ore, from which the show gets its name. That Bette should draw the title of his show from the color he uses is not insignificant: Bette’s large-format paintings in this gallery’'s clear white rooms are every bit as cool, as matter- of-fact, as the title would indicate. This play on the relation between the figurative and the discursive points to the artist’s