A FEW DAYS BEFORE READING Thomas Lawson’s article “Last Exit: Painting” (Artforum, October 1981), I happened to be looking at a painting by David Salle in the presence of a well-known art collector who is a foremost guardian of any number of “ideological institutions.” He expressed his liking for the painting and asked me if I knew the name of Salle’s dealer, which naturally led me to conclude that he was interested in buying one of the artist’s works. Since then I have read “Last Exit: Painting,” which says, “Salle follows a strategy of infiltration and sabotage, using established conventions