Blinky Palermo
Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
Grabbeplatz 4
October 21, 2007–January 20, 2008
Curated by Susanne Küper
Given that Düsseldorf was the site of Blinky Palermo's artistic formation in the 1960swhere he not only worked with mentor Joseph Beuys and fellow student and collaborator Gerhard Richter but also lived for many productive yearsit is odd that this will be the first major presentation of the artist's work in the city. Organized by two local institutionsthe Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalenthis exhibition of some forty-five works takes the artist's relationship to the city as its premise, giving special emphasis to his preoccupation with the architecture of the local kunsthalle (where the exhibition takes place). The rationale for this narrow focus lies in anecdotes of Palermo's fascination with the washed concrete building on Grabbeplatz which Küper came across while researching her doctoral thesis on Palermo's lost architectural interventions.