Two Artists (incl Salman Toor), Two Views of the Human Figure - NYT

 

Two Artists, Two Views of the Human Figure

Salman Toor’s show in New York and Christina Quarles’s in Chicago reveal the enduring — but continually evolving — style of the centuries-old art form known as figuration.

Source: NYT

This article is part of our latest special report on Museums, which focuses on the intersection of art and politics.

Until fairly recently, the world of contemporary art went through a period of turning up its nose on figurative art — works that have a strong resemblance to the real world, especially the human figure.

But two new exhibits by two queer artists on opposite coasts help demonstrate how much that attitude has changed — and how much the change is fueled by fresh perspectives.

The exhibitions — “Salman Toor: How Will I Know” at the Whitney Museum of American Art and “Christina Quarles” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago — present two artists around the same age and at similar career stages with strikingly different styles of figuration.

But Mr. Toor, based in New York, and Ms. Quarles, who lives in Los Angeles, both use a brush to tell previously obscure stories, proving that traditional representational art has the durability to be constantly reinvented, played with and recharged.

“It’s an exciting moment,” said Christopher Y. Lew, the Whitney curator who organized Mr. Toor’s show with Ambika Trasi, a curatorial assistant. “Younger painters are reinvesting energy in figuration.”