Important Notice

Much of Somnath Hore's work responds to the socio-political issues and historical events in his lifetime, including the 1940 Bengal famine, Tebhaga movement, and the Vietnam war. He began sculpting only in the 1970s in Santiniketan, and both his figurative paintings and bronzes often depict the trials of the human experience. "Somnath, along with a few others, can be regarded as the progenitor of the main spirit of the seventies in Indian art.... Much of Somnath Hore's work responds to the socio-political issues and historical events in his lifetime, including the 1940 Bengal famine, Tebhaga movement, and the Vietnam war. He began sculpting only in the 1970s in Santiniketan, and both his figurative paintings and bronzes often depict the trials of the human experience. "Somnath, along with a few others, can be regarded as the progenitor of the main spirit of the seventies in Indian art. Unlike most of his predecessors and contemporaries, he was never primarily motivated by art objects and styles of art, past or present, of indigenous or of foreign origin... His primary motivation has always been his experience of the external world around him. It has always been his aim to objectify visually his own experience of the phenomenal world in perceptible terms, so that others can share his experience." (Pranab Ranjan Roy, "Hunger and the Painter: Somnath Hore & the Wounds," Somnath Hore: Bronzes, Kolkata: CIMA, 1995, p. 33)

As seen in the present lot, which once belonged to the collection of eminent artist Bal Chhabda, Hore's bronze figures are small and minimalistic yet impactful, with rough textures and surfaces. According to R Siva Kumar, "The modeling of the face, the hunched back, the folds and axial shifts of the body, everything carries the imprint of the artist's hands. Turning his bronzes in our hands or running our hands over them, we become aware of this intimate shaping process... In his own words, the artistic excellence of art 'is revealed through its own components, not because of any message of polemic'. The strength and radical edge of his work comes from this fusion of means and meaning." ("Somnath Hore: Images of Discontent," Somnath Hore: Bronzes, Kolkata: CIMA, p. 36)

BAL CHHABDA (1923 - 2013)

Bal Chhabda's role as a patron to the artists-and as an artist himself-was a seminal one in the history of modern Indian art. A key figure among the art circles from the 1950s onwards, Chhabda was a close friend of the Progressive Artists' Group and instrumental in promoting and contributing to their success. "The history remembers and reminisces those with success, the pioneers; the steps are not counted, just trod upon... Bal Chhabda, the loyal friend Husain mentions, is the significant piece of the jigsaw called PAG." (Snehal Tambulwadikar, "The Unspoken Histories and Fragment: Bal Chhabda," art news & views, online)

Born in pre-Partition Punjab in 1923, Chhabda was an artist, gallerist, collector, and in his early days, even a filmmaker. After a brief stint working in the family business of film distribution in Ahmedabad, Chhabda embarked on a year-long explorative journey to Hollywood in 1947 and made a film titled Do Raha in 1952. Although it was commercially unsuccessful, Chhabda formed a friendship with the modernist M F Husain through it and became immersed in the art world, when his attempt to secure funds for his second film failed.

In the late 1950s, Husain took him to the Bhulabhai Desai Memorial Institute in Mumbai, which was then the nexus for budding artists, musicians and theatre practitioners. Through the erstwhile PAG artist, he met the theatre doyen Ebrahim Alkazi and artists Tyeb Mehta, S H Raza, Krishen Khanna, Ram Kumar and V S Gaitonde, who lived and assembled at the Institute. It was Husain and Gaitonde's encouragement that prompted Chhabda to try his hand at painting.

At the time, there were no contemporary art spaces in Mumbai, and to answer this need, Chhabda founded Gallery 59 in 1959-named after the year it was formed-at the ground floor of the Institute. Although it was short-lived, Gallery 59 showcased important works of many young artists, such as Akbar Padamsee's seminal solo show Grey Works, which included the monumental painting Greek Landscape, and was showered with rave reviews by leading critics.

Within a year of its opening, Chhabda shut down the gallery after differences with the Institute's manager, but he remained a close patron and friend to artists, amassing a huge collection of their works throughout his lifetime. Lots 9 and 10 were a part of his collection.

As unequivocally supportive as he was of his fellow artists, Chhabda was just as shy about his own art. Although he had perhaps only three solo shows in his entire artistic career, he participated in several prestigious exhibitions in India and internationally. In 1961, he received the Governor's award at the Tokyo Biennale-an honour he steadfastly downplayed. In 1965, he received the Lalit Kala Akademi Award, followed by a J D Rockefeller III Fellowship to travel and work in the US. Four years later, his work was selected for the show Contemporary Art: A Dialogue between the East and West, which included the likes of Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter and Jackson Pollock, and was held at the Musem of Modern Art in Tokyo. Even the establishment of the Jehangir Nicholson Gallery of Modern Art, which was possible due to Jehangir Nicholson donating a part of his collection to the National Centre for the Performing Arts, is partially credited to Bal Chhabda.

Heartbroken after the death of artists and close friends Tyeb Mehta in 2009 and M F Husain in 2011, Chhabda was said to have become a recluse. He passed away in 2013. His contribution to the development of Indian art, whether directly or indirectly, and the growth of the art scene in Mumbai, was pivotal to its success, and are enduring reminders of his legacy.

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