By the time of his death in 1977 at the age of 33, Blinky Palermo was an important painter. But for Palermo painting had ceased to be merely an art medium, and had become instead a mania, a passion that both intoxicated him and drained him. No exhibition of work by Palermo (whose real name was Peter Heisterkamp) has succeeded better at making this clear than the one first presented at the Munich Haus der Kunst and later transferred to the Cologne annex of the Dia Art Foundation. Assembled by Franz Dahlem and Imi Knoebel, both close friends of Palermo, this highly provocative and illuminating