Hore's work is filled with a humanist eye, inclination towards empathy, and his communist ideology. Tension in lines and emaciating figures were significant in most of his works. He was driven with the feeling of anguish and suffering of the poor. The overall impression one gets from Somnath's works is the depth of poverty he has starved in. He used knives and red-hot rods to cut and burn into a piece of clay, which then provided the basis for a cement mold that would shape and scar the paper pulp. He moulded the white paper to form wound-like gashes and stained them with red blood-like pigment. The haunting imagery, blisters of the restrained figures made him poignant, among others. Hore stated,' I do not take pictures, I make 'wounds' indeed.
- Identifier
- ngma-04620
- Material
- Etching Print
- Note
- Hailing from the small village of Barama, Chittagong (presently Bangladesh), Somnath Hore, born in 1921 started painting for the Communist party. He painted scenes of war on the documentation including the Bengal famine and Tebhaga Movement which were based on the agitation between the landlords and the tenants in 1948. During this uprising, Hore came in contact with Chittaprosad Bhattacharya, who himself was a printmaker and a strategist. Later his joining at the Government College of Art and Craft, Calcutta in 1954 made him learn the printmaking techniques of lithography and intaglio. At then Haren Das was the acting head of the graphics department which gave Hore the advantage of learning from him. Hore came up with an invention in the paper pulp printing along with various amalgamations of different media which gave him utter recognition. His series of abstract paper pulp 'Wounds’ fetch him a number of accolades and appreciation. Later he moved to Santi niketan, worked for Kala Bhawan. His association with K.G. Subramanyam and RamKinker Baij at the Viswa Bharati University resulted in his inclination towards the sculptures. He contorted the sculptures in bronze. He headed the Graphics Department of College of Art, Delhi. Also, he went to M.S.U. Baroda and Indian College of Draughtsman ship
- Pages
- 26 x 29 cm
- Published in
- India
- Type
