The Convalescent 2019

Salman Toor made this painting, *The Convalescent*, with thin layers of oil paint to create a sense of narrative ambiguity. The painting feels like a stage set, and a drama is about to unfold. Toor’s got this uncanny ability to tap into art history. The muted, hazy tones remind me of sick rooms in 18th-century paintings, but then there’s also something very contemporary in the rendering of the figures. They're not quite solid, are they? Like memories or projections. The thin paint is deftly brushed to describe form while also suggesting its impermanence. I can imagine Toor, brush in hand, slowly building up the composition, changing his mind, and smudging the paint as he goes. The reclining figure huddled in the chair almost melts into the background. Is it a dream or a hallucination? Toor’s work reminds us that painting can be a way to explore the world as we feel and imagine it, rather than how we simply see it. It joins a much longer conversation about how we can represent our inner lives.