Michael Darling

Target Practice: Painting Under Attack 1949-78 is an international historical survey of the "attacks" that painting endured (and survived) in the years following World War II. For the artists discussed here, coming after Abstract Expressionism, painting had arrived at an impasse, and they devised ways to overcome its existing conventions. This phenomenon occurred all over the world, and Target Practice documents how and why artists felt compelled to shoot, rip, tear, burn, erase, nail, unzip and deconstruct painting in order to usher in new ways of thinking about their art. It shows that such ideas were of concern to well-known artists like Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, and also introduces lesser-known peers who were making equally challenging work.