SEATTLE, WA.-  Organized by the Seattle Art
Museum (SAM),Target Practice: Painting Under Attack 1949-78 is an
international, historical survey of the assaults that painting
endured in the years following World War II,
documenting why artists felt compelled to shoot, rip, tear,
burn, erase, nail, unzip and deconstruct painting in order to usher
in a new way of thinking. Target Practice includes works by
well-known artists like Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy
Warhol, as well as lesser-known peers who were making equally
challenging work in Europe, Asia, South America and North America.
With more than 70 works of art, including documentary photographs
and video, Target Practice introduces a compelling way to appreciate
the breakthroughs made by a new generation of artists in the fertile
years between 1949 and 1978. Curated by Michael Darling, SAM’s Jon
and Mary Shirley Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, the
exhibition will be on view at SAM from June 25 to September 7,
2009.