9PM, the News
- Artist: Salman Toor
- Date: 2015
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 2503 x 2462 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is “9PM, the News” by Salman Toor, finished in 2015 and painted in oil on a huge canvas that measures over two and a half metres across. The scene settles around a dining table after a family meal. At the head of the table sits the father, cigarette in hand, while his son—nude and exposed—leans back, looking up at a television screen that dominates the space. The screen shows the 9 o’clock news, but its image is broken up by comic‑book‑style flashes, empty speech bubbles and splashes of black oil that hover like shadows over the son’s shoulder.
Behind them, the family’s neglected servant stands, and tall minarets loom in the background, reminding us of a mosque far away. The mother, also rendered nude, sits to the left, her own vulnerability mirrored in the son's. Toor calls this work a queer self‑family portrait set against a conservative Islamic backdrop. He describes the figures in the background as “ghosts” of his Pakistani heritage—ancestors who both disrupt and enable new identities.
The painting feels like a quiet dialogue between personal anxieties and the relentless noise of global media, capturing the tension of living between cultures and expectations.
See it in person
9PM, the News is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
