4 White Forms
Blinky Palermo
German, 1943–1977
1975
Four small aluminum panels painted with synthetic polymer in which Palermo pares painting down to pale white fields edged by narrow red or blue bands, testing how color and repetition shape perception.
Confronting them you notice a hushed, almost architectural rhythm—the cool, slightly textured white centers are quietly bracketed at top and bottom by flat strips of red or blue, and the even spacing turns the works into a subtle sequence.
Made near the end of his career, this work exemplifies Palermo’s role in stripping painting to its essentials—using industrial materials, serial formats, and restrained color to foreground perception, objecthood, and the relational effects of repetition within postwar abstraction.
Medium
Synthetic polymer paint on aluminum, four panels
Dimensions
Each 10 1/2 x 8 1/2" (26.7 x 21.6 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund (by exchange)
Accession
83.2010.a-d
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
