This past Thursday exhibitions featuring work by Blinky Palermo & William Eggleston opened at LACMA. Although they are two independent exhibitions, the works in them operate similarly. This makes their sharing of BCAM's second floor a fruitful coupling. In a conversation a couple days before the opening Lynne Cooke, curator of the Blinky Palermo exhibition, and artist Mathias Poledna spent much time discussing the lightness of Palermo's work. Mathias noted that Gerhard Richter, a friend of Palermo's, was jealous of Palermo's light touch and skill with color. Lynne expanded on this, stating that although Palermo's work seems effortless he struggled and destroyed many paintings he felt to be beneath his standards. His work embodies the effort of looking effortless. This quality also exists in Eggleston's work. His photographs may appear as though they could be taken by anyone but very few people could take the same modest photograph and have it look as successful and effortless as Eggleston. Eggleston, like Palermo, is also a master of color. He was one of the first photographers to use color photography, earning him the title the 'Father of Color Photography.'
Palermo, To the People of New York City, 1976, 40 individual panels, acrylic on aluminum installed at Dia on 22nd St. NYC, 1987-88.
