The Enigmatic Presence of Blinky Palermo In the vibrant, often turbulent landscape of twentieth-century German abstraction, few names resonate with as much intrigue and stylistic purity as Blinky Palermo. Born Peter Schwarze in Leipzig in 1943, the artist’s very identity was a carefully constructed performance. Adopted as an infant alongside his twin brother, Michael, by the Heisterkamp family, he would later adopt a pseudonym that sounded more like a character from a noir film than a scholar of the fine arts. This moniker, taken from the American boxing promoter and mafioso Frank "Blinky" P…