Untitled 2018

Salman Toor created this untitled painting using traditional materials – oil paint on canvas – yet with an undeniably contemporary feel. Toor's technique, visible in the brushwork and layering of colors, gives the image a hazy, dreamlike quality. The choice of oil paint is significant; it's a medium historically associated with portraiture and the representation of social status. Here, Toor subverts those associations. The muted palette and somewhat awkward poses of the figures suggest intimacy but also vulnerability, a departure from the grandiosity often seen in historical oil paintings. Toor skillfully employs the fluidity of oil paint to create a sense of ambiguity and emotional depth. The very act of applying paint becomes a way of exploring identity, community and belonging, imbuing the work with both social and cultural significance. Ultimately, Toor’s conscious use of traditional methods invites us to reconsider established notions of fine art and its relationship to contemporary social issues.