"Sensual, Dangerous, Joyous — Painter Salman Toor Brings New York Queer Life to the Courtauld" by Maya Jaggi

In Salman Toor’s captivating oil painting “The Bar on East 13th” (2019), a goateed bartender with black nail varnish and plaits tempts a hesitant customer, visible over his shoulder in the bar mirror, with a freshly cut lemon. Beside them, two other men — one dark, one blond — swoon in flagrant embrace. The disco ball in place of a chandelier, and a glowing smartphone in the reflected crowd, mark this compelling composition as light-years from its Belle-Epoque inspiration: the enigmatic barmaid of Manet’s “A Bar at the Folies-Bergère”. Yet Toor’s eager newcomer, luscious citrus, warning blade and spilled beer create narrative intrigue every bit as arresting and ambiguous.

Poised between sensuality and danger, liberation and guilt, the work is on show from October 2 in Salman Toor: Someone Like You at the Courtauld Gallery in London — where Manet’s 1882 painting hangs felicitously in the next room. This is the first solo exhibition in Europe of the fast-rising Pakistani-American artist, introduced here as a leading figure in a resurgence of narrative painting. Born in Lahore in 1983, he moved to the US in 2002 and lives in New York, where his first major solo show was at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2020.

Read full article at ft.com.