Important Notice

As witness to human suffering from the days of the War and the Bengal Famine, Somnath Hore poignantly captured the horror and ugliness brought upon people through his paintings, prints and sculptures. Beginning with writing posters for the Communist Party, he was encouraged by Chittaprasad to visually document his observations. His drawings featured in publications like Janyuddha and Peoples War where they gained attention. Encouraged by the... As witness to human suffering from the days of the War and the Bengal Famine, Somnath Hore poignantly captured the horror and ugliness brought upon people through his paintings, prints and sculptures. Beginning with writing posters for the Communist Party, he was encouraged by Chittaprasad to visually document his observations. His drawings featured in publications like Janyuddha and Peoples War where they gained attention. Encouraged by the Party to move to Kolkata and enrol at the Government Art College, he refined his representational skills and overcame his technical shortcomings. In the late 40s and early 50s, when printmaking made circulating the Party ideology easy, he took it up seriously. He delved deep into it, exploring its possibilities. In succeeding decades, he veered away from the purely representational and moved towards stylisation and suggestion.

Hore made these three sketches at a time when bronzes had begun dominating his work. He had worked with various media, and at the core of every work, his ideological concerns remained centred on human suffering. He wanted to infuse his works with more than just an idea or image of suffering; he universalised it by incorporating its sensations. So he moved from colour lithography to wood-cuts, etchings, engravings, and bronze sculptures, every time approaching them with a fresh start. The figures we see here are hence not sentimental images of suffering. We glimpse forms and perceive varying moods in each creation. Hore deftly captures the dynamics of interaction between the figures in (a) and (b). The outlined figures in (a) share an intimacy. Though they look concerned, their subject of conversation remains shrouded in mystery. (b) swells with narrative-the huddled figures in the background are ignored, and the figures in the foreground appear to assuage each other. Both (b) and (c) show intricate lines etched into the faces and bodies like scars: they appear to be wearing their wounds.

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