Salman Toor

Acquired directly from the artist circa 1999

Salman Toor was born in Lahore, Pakistan and currently lives and works in New York. He studied painting and drawing at Ohio Wesleyan University and received his MFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. In 2020-2021, he was given an acclaimed solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and his works are housed in the collections of the Tate in London, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and M Woods in Beijing. Toor is one of the most sought-after figurative painters of his generation. In 2021, the artist was listed among TIME Magazine’s 100 emerging leaders shaping the future. (E. Felsenthal, 'How We Chose the 2021 TIME100 Next', TIME, 17 February 2021, https://time.com/5939731/how-we-chose-2021-time100-next/)

Painted circa 1999, this is an early work by Toor. Unlike many of his later canvases which are often occupied by multiple figures interacting with each other, here, the subject is a solitary woman. She stands within an interior, her gaze fixed on the viewer, and her figure reflected in the mirror behind. This painting reveals the influence of famed Pakistani painter Colin David. Whilst David is known for his depictions of lone female subjects, he attempted to never paint his figures in isolation; they were always part of a larger composition with an object such as a pillow, cone, ball or other shapes to create interesting optical effects. Here, Toor has adopted a similar motif: his figure is accompanied by artworks on the walls and her own reflection, the mirror becoming evocative of a painting itself. The work is executed in muted hues, with touches of vibrant green, a colour that predominates in the artist's later works. Untitled is an intimate vignette of quotidian life, and in its framing and execution, the composition is reminiscent of a photograph in soft focus.