Important Notice

Much of Somnath Hore's work responds to social and 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 social and 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, 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)

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