Blinky Palermo was born Peter Schwarze on 2 June 1943. In the same year, he and his twin brother Michael were adopted by Erika and Wilhelm Heisterkamp. In 1961, Palermo began his artistic training at the Werkkunstschule Münster and the following year began studying at the Düsseldorf Art Academy under Bruno Goller, moving to Joseph Beuys’ class in 1964. From 1965 Schwarze exhibited under the name Blinkt Palermo. His pseudonym goes back to the American Mafioso Blinky Palermo. In 1967 Blinky Palermo finished his studies at the Düsseldorf Academy. Even after his studies, his friendships with Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke accompanied him. Between 1968 and 1973, a reduction of the pictorial vocabulary can be observed in numerous techniques in his oeuvre The sheet Projektion shows a section of a Düsseldorf backyard taken from a window. A square is projected onto the white façade, which is blue at the top and red at the bottom. The colour is interrupted by illuminated windows. Within 15 years of his work, a consistent development took place that would continue to have a major influence right up to the present day. The sheet “Projektion” was published by Belser Kunstverlag in Stuttgart as a contribution to a portfolio entitled “Düsseldorfer Szene”, which was never realised; the sheet was given to the Düsseldorfer Kunstverein and distributed as an annual edition in 1977.