Bar Boy 2019

Salman Toor painted "Bar Boy," using thin layers of oil to conjure this social scene. There’s a dreamy haziness to the painting, isn’t there? It’s all rendered in this slightly sickly, but seductive, green. It reminds me of those old photos that have aged and shifted in color, but it's not nostalgic in a sentimental way. Look at the figure in the center, the Bar Boy himself. He’s standing alone, holding a drink, with this ambiguous expression, like he's both there and not there. The paint is so thin it almost feels like a watercolor, with these delicate, almost translucent layers building up to create depth and form. It's as if Toor is capturing a fleeting memory or an emotional state. The way Toor handles paint reminds me of early Édouard Vuillard – intimate, interior scenes, a quiet sense of melancholy. Like Vuillard, Toor embraces a certain kind of ambiguity, inviting us to project our own experiences and interpretations onto the canvas. Art isn't about providing easy answers, it's about opening up a space for questions and possibilities.