As a Düsseldorf school boy, Rüdiger Maaß was drawn to the attention of Blinky Palermo, who Maaß credits as his integral trigger to art. Over twenty years ago he started to collect anything that he could find, of printed paraphernalia surrounding the German abstractionist. This has amounted to around 450 pieces of a Palermo printed matter collection, and an intensive historical following. Outside of this, the collecting interests of Rüdiger and his wife Andrea, lie in the young and contemporary.

Considered as a hidden pearl of Munich, the Metropol Kunstraum – a former gas station and car workshop – invited Rüdiger Maaß as their second guest for a collection presentation, with an exhibition titled Blinky Palermo – Printed Matter. The exhibition did not show artworks by Blinky Palermo, which have been exhibited often in recent years, including at the Goetz Collection in Munich 2017, but printed matter of catalogues, posters and invitation cards, which resulted from the artist and his exhibition activities. Such ephemera traces a period from 1965 to 2018, and thus both provides an exciting insight into both the exhibitions and reception of Palermo, from his first exhibition up until today, as well as that of over 50 years of graphic design.

Although no works by Palermo were shown, an edition by Olaf Nicolai, which refers to Blinky Palermo, presented one work of art to be seen in the exhibition.

“For the visitors of the exhibition, I would like them to be able to grasp a little of the “spirit” of Palermo’s work and the time I see in it through the printed matter, and also to experience the relevance of Palermo during his lifetime and to this day. Therefore, it should be a short excursion not only into art history, but also into contemporary history.” – Rüdiger Maaß

The Metropol Kunstraum exists since 2007 under the initiation of collector Markus Michalke, who presents positions from his collection in the rooms, with a focus on works on paper and sculpture. The garage building is architecturally characterised by a projecting trumpet canopy, and was built in 1955 to function as the base of an apartment building.

In this Collection Feature, presented following is image material of the catalogue objects and the catalogue itself, as seen in the catalogue of Rüdiger’s collection, Blinky Palermo – Printed Matter. Special mention goes to Maximilian Schachtner and Daily Dialogue who co-conceptualised and designed the catalogue, and to Hannes Rohrer for the photos!

MONOGRAPHS

GROUP CATALOGUES

MAGAZINE

POSTERS

EPHEMERA