Ohne Titel 1964

Blinky Palermo made this untitled work from paint on wood sometime between 1964 and 1976. It is evocative of a horizon line with swathes of olive green and blue, which begs the question: what is it about an artwork like this that merits our attention? Palermo was working in West Germany, in the long shadow cast by World War II. Like many artists of his generation, he wanted to find a new visual language that would reject the aesthetic values of the Nazi period. He was working with Joseph Beuys at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, which was at the time attempting to redefine the role of art in German society and the project of national identity. In this context, Palermo’s use of simple geometric forms and industrial materials can be understood as a deliberate attempt to create a new, democratic form of art, an art that could speak to the collective experience. Research into the archives of the Dusseldorf academy might shed more light on the role of this artwork.