"I see myself as part of a multiethnic generation of painters in the US who are taking on art history to update, critique, and tweak it, to write ourselves into its rich story.”
A masterful example of Salman Toor’s luscious depictions of the imagined lives of the South Asian queer community in New York and Lahore, The Rooftop Singer (2017) is exemplary of the artist’s powerfully poignant paintings, brimming with enthralling details. In The Rooftop Singer, multiple narratives unfold in front of the viewer, with Toor constructing concurrent pockets of action for the viewer to consume and decipher. On the left of the image, a man sits strumming his guitar, captivating the attention of the young man by his side. Staring intently with his forehead almost pressing into the singer’s fluffy hair, the man in a familiar white shirt and orange jacket appears wholly engrossed in the musician and his music. As the woman in front of the pair gazes off to an unseen subject beyond the confines of the canvas, Toor establishes the viewer’s position as an onlooker to this intimate scene. This is a signature example of Toor’s ability to express vulnerability and both the private and public lives of his figures, creating a sense of ease and candidness amongst his characters. Further, to the right of the image, two men are caught in a moment of grief, the tall figure in glasses consoling the other in the light of the open doorway. The tenderness and apparent melancholy of the pair intrigues the viewer, desperate to understand the reason behind this poignant exchange—a lover’s tiff or the consoling of a friend after receiving bad news, it is unknown. In The Rooftop Singer, Toor portrays both a fleeting, mundane moment and a memorable event in which time seems suspended, capturing a snapshot of a rooftop gathering and its many simultaneous dramas and intrigues
“I like these seemingly undernourished and hairy bodies of color inhabiting familiar, bourgeois, urban, interior spaces. I see these boys or men as well-educated, creative types discovering what it means to live an artist’s life in New York City and in the thick of changing ideas about race, immigration, and foreignness, and also what it means to be American. Sometimes they can look like lifestyle images. They are also fantasies about myself and my community. It’s incredibly empowering to share the comedy and disquiet of these narratives with Americans, and the world.”

In works such as The Rooftop Singer, Toor wonderfully merges references from Western art history, and aspects from his lived experience between Pakistan and the US to create relatable scenes that are understandable and recognisable by a universal audience. In this way, Toor evokes empathy in his viewer, and the viewer in turn is able to feel as if they are participating in Toor’s flirty tableaus. Discussing how his self-identity and the experience of different cultures informs his work, the artist has stated: “As an adult I paint figures to enhance my context as a queer man living between cultures. I use figurative imagery to mythologise my life, define my relationship to power, but also to laugh at myself and have fun” (the artist quoted in Cassie Packard, “Blurring the Lines between Public and Private: Salman Toor Interviewed by Cassie Packard”, BOMB, 12 Feb 2021). In The Rooftop Singer, the inclusion of an open doorway could be interpreted as a symbol of his “in-betweeness”, reflective of his lived experience between two drastically different countries and their cultures. Indeed, the artist has described how his paintings: “are certainly rooted in the diasporic experience and in the idea that you may not belong anywhere while thinking you belong in multiple places. To present yourself on the cusp of another world is to be seen. It’s a powerful and lasting experience that doesn’t end with the encounters in these transitory spaces” (the artist quoted in Cassie Packard, “Blurring the Lines between Public and Private: Salman Toor Interviewed by Cassie Packard”, BOMB, 12 Feb 2021).

Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
讓・安東尼・華托,《梅佐汀》,約於1718-1720年作,大都會藝術博物館珍藏
Multiple Western art historical references are at play in his work, further establishing a sense of familiarity and relatability in Toor’s work through the allusion to the Old Master paintings that he has dedicated years to studying and copying. From the luxuriousness and flamboyance of the Rococo to the flattened planes and distorted perspective of the Impressionists, works such as The Rooftop Singer lusciously combine different art historical styles to express the artist’s singular artistic language that is rooted in the contemporary experience. For Toor, these iconic images from art history represented a channel of “escape and fantasy” while growing up: “Art history has formed my imaginary map of the world, conquests, migrations, ideas of civilization, foreignness, and fashion. I like seeing the thread of the past in the present. I grew up looking at a mix of images from Indian and European art history: images of Mughal princes and fakirs next to contemporary (and very badly painted) faux-folk paintings of pretty peasant women in tight tops and large nose rings carrying clay water jars on their heads, and cheap framed prints of Thomas Gainsborough’s or Peter Lely’s portraits of Mrs.-so-and-so. These images became part of my nostalgia for my childhood, but also a space of escape and fantasy during my years growing up.” (the artist quoted in Cassie Packard, “Blurring the Lines between Public and Private: Salman Toor Interviewed by Cassie Packard”, BOMB, 12 Feb 2021). With his signature fluid application of paint, The Rooftop Singer is a spectacular, sensitive example by the artist, the embodiment of what Cassie Packard has described as: “the urban bohemian experience with all of its pleasures and internal contradictions” (Cassie Packard, “Blurring the Lines between Public and Private: Salman Toor Interviewed by Cassie Packard”, BOMB, 12 Feb 2021).
Salman Toor’s enchanting scenes of marginalized subjects previously neglected in the canons of art history have charmed a diverse audience around the world, and have led him to be named among TIME magazine’s 2021 list of 100 emerging leaders shaping the future. Toor has captured the attention of the art world, and has already been honoured with a solo museum show, How Will I Know, at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in November 2020. Testament to the influence of the Old Masters in his oeuvre, his work is presented alongside masterpieces from Western art history at the prestigious Frick Collection in New York, in the exciting year-long project, Living Histories: Queer Views and Old Masters, running until Spetember 2022. This year, the artist’s work is the subject of a solo exhibition at M Woods in Beijing, the first solo museum exhibition in the Mainland.
「在美國的這一代畫家融合多個民族,我視自己為其中一分子,我們對藝術史進行更新、批評、調整,再將自己寫入當中,成為這個豐富故事的一部分。」
《屋 頂歌手》(2017年作)是薩爾曼.圖爾的典範之作,作品呈現紐約和拉合爾的南亞裔同性戀社群和他們的親密日常,畫中可見許多迷人的細節。在本作中,多個故事在觀眾眼前展開,供觀眾細味解讀。畫面左方有一男子坐下來彈結他,吸引身旁另一年輕男子的注意。年輕男子身穿普通白襯衫和橙色外套,他專心盯著對方,額頭幾乎貼著歌手蓬鬆的頭髮,似乎已完全沈醉於樂手和他的音樂中。這對男子前方有一女子,她的目光投向畫框以外看不見的對象上,藝術家藉著她的視線,讓觀眾置身於旁觀者的位置,觀察這個親暱的場景。本作體現了圖爾出色的描繪技巧,一個畫面就交代了筆下人物柔軟脆弱的一面,以及他們對外和私下的生活狀態,展現出人物自在坦率的狀態。另外,畫中右方有兩個傷心難過的男子,他倆站在敞開的門前,戴眼鏡的年輕男子在安慰另一個男子。這對男子流露的柔情和傷痛引起觀眾的好奇,急切想知道這種情緒交流的背後原因——無人知曉是情人間發生小爭執,還是收到惡耗後朋友給予安慰。《屋頂歌手》描繪一幕天台聚會,藝術家將這個短暫而平凡的生活片段定格在一刻,在畫面上同時展開多個引人遐想的戲劇性場面。
「我喜歡這些看起來營養不良又多毛的有色人種身體,他們居住在普通、充滿物質享受的都市室內空間。我認為這些男孩或男子是受過良好教育、創意無限的一群人,他們發現了何謂在紐約市過藝術家的生活,在有關種族、移民、外國性的思想變化演得最激烈的時候,當美國人意味著甚麼。有時候他們像生活雜誌裡的圖像,也是我對自己和社群的幻想。能夠與美國人和全世界分享這些敘述中的可笑和不安,讓我感到非常自主。」
圖爾擅於引用他對西方藝術史的所知所聞,再融合他在巴基斯坦與美國兩地的生活體驗,創作出令世界各地觀眾都能理解的作品。這樣一來,圖爾既可以引起觀眾共鳴,觀眾也可以參與在圖爾饒有趣味的場面中。關於其身份和不同的文化體驗對創作的影響,他表示:「作為一個遊走在不同文化之間的非異性戀成年人,我藉著繪畫人物將自己的生活幻化成神話般的故事,界定我與權力的關係,也順便嘲弄自己來圖個開心」(引述藝街家,載於卡絲.帕卡德撰,〈模糊公私的界線:卡絲.帕卡德專訪薩爾曼.圖爾〉,《BOMB》,2021年2月12日)。本畫中敞開的門,可以解讀為藝術家本人「處身中間」的象徵,反映他生活在兩個文化差距極大的國家的體驗。事實上,圖爾曾形容他的繪畫「無疑是源於散居各地的經歷,還有一種以為自己屬於多個地方,但其實可能哪裡都沒有自己的位置的想法。這些體會讓我感受很深,而且歷久常新,不會因為在短暫停留的空間有甚麼相遇而消散」(引述藝術家,載於卡絲.帕卡德撰,〈模糊公私的界線:卡絲.帕卡德專訪薩爾曼.圖爾〉,《BOMB》,2021年2月12日)。
圖爾的作品有很多從西方藝術史借鏡的地方,他多年來研究和臨摹古典大師的畫作,利用關於那些傑作的指涉進而營造熟悉親切的感覺。從洛可可風格的奢華豔麗,到印象主義平面化的色面和扭曲的透視,諸如《屋頂歌手》般的作品巧妙地結合歷史上不同的藝術風格,從而展現藝術家扎根於當代體驗的獨特藝術語彙。對圖爾而言,藝術史上的知名作品和圖案符號代表他成長期間「逃避與幻想」的途徑:「藝術史組成我想像中的世界地圖、征服、遷移、文明的觀念、外來性、潮流,我喜歡在當下見到過去的絲線。在成長的過程中,我看過印度和歐洲藝術史上各式各樣的藝術形象:莫卧兒王子和苦行僧的圖像,然後是當代的仿民族畫(畫工相當低劣),這類畫中的漂亮農婦穿著緊身上衣、戴著大鼻環,頭上頂著盛水的泥罐;還有湯馬斯.庚斯羅博和彼得.萊利為某某夫人繪畫的肖像畫,都是廉價的裝裱印刷品。這些圖像成為我童年回憶的一部分,也是陪伴我成長的逃避和幻想空間」(引述藝術家,載於卡絲.帕卡德撰,〈模糊公私的界線:卡絲.帕卡德專訪薩爾曼.圖爾〉,《BOMB》,2021年2月12日)。《屋頂歌手》畫面色彩明快、流暢自然,無疑是圖爾的出色佳作,亦體現出卡絲.帕卡德所形容的「充滿喜悅和內心矛盾的都市波希米亞體驗」(引述藝術家,載於卡絲.帕卡德撰,〈模糊公私的界線:卡絲.帕卡德專訪薩爾曼.圖爾〉,《BOMB》,2021年2月12日)。
薩爾曼.圖爾運用在藝術典籍中被忽視的邊緣題材,創作出一幕幕迷人的場景,迷倒世界各地的觀眾,他的名字更因而登上《時代雜誌》公布的2021年「全球百大最具影響力人物」榜單。圖爾在藝壇備受注目,2020年11月紐約惠特尼美國藝術博物館為他舉行個展「我怎知道」(How Will I Know),表揚他在藝術上的傑出成就。紐約弗里克收藏館籌辦了為期一年的項目「活著的歷史:酷兒的視點與古典大師」(Living Histories: Queer Views and Old Masters),展期至2022年9月。這場展覽特意將圖爾的畫作與館方收藏的西方藝術傑作並置,佐證古代大師對圖爾創作的深遠影響。今年,北京木木美術館展出圖爾的作品,是圖爾在中國大陸舉行的首場個展。