Salman Toor Takes His Seat at the Courtauld
The New York painter hangs his work alongside the European masters who shaped him. Salman Toor has spent years studying European old masters, particularly painters such as Vermeer and Bruegel, and referencing them in his own work. Now 19 of his recent paintings are on view at the Courtauld, nalongside works from the museum’s collection that have shaped his practice. Édouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882) In one of his many trips to Paris, Toor saw Édouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882) at the Courtauld. Manet’s last major painting before his death places a female barmaid at its centre, while a large gold-framed mirror behind her reflects an animated Parisian nightlife. In response, Toor painted The Bar on East 13th in 2019, replacing the barmaid with a South Asian queer bartender with long braids, surrounded by a city’s nightlife. Toor said the work, painted in his characteristic green palette, “helped me paint my way into a community in New York City; it...
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