A unique exhibition featuring works by Bengal master Somnath Hore titled ‘Wounds’ showcases how the artist used printmaking technique to reflect violence and trauma
A unique exhibition featuring works by Bengal master Somnath Hore titled ‘Wounds’ showcases how the artist used printmaking technique to reflect violence and trauma
“What do I paint Expression of my own self, revolving around the one concept — Wounds. All the wounds and wounded I have seen are engraved on my consciousness,” the Bengal master Somnath Hore had said about his work. Akar Prakar Art Advisory brings a unique collaborative exhibition titled “Wounded” featuring sculptures, prints pulp and drawings of this famed artist, setting the tone for the upcoming art season in the capital.
Hore was widely regarded as the foremost Indian printmaker and sculptor of the 20th century; his work was influenced by two formative socio-political events — the Great Bengal Famine of 1943 and the Tebhaga Peasant Movement of 1946. Throughout his career, he returned to the idea of the wound as a fissure that would not heal. “The anguished human body has always been reflected in Somnath’s figuration. His sculptures were not far removed from his work on paper, however the mark of his work is more starkly manifest. Heightened by torn and textured surfaces, rough planes with holes and fissures, subtle modeling with shifts and exposed channels, all make for exciting tactile and visual appeal in his range of medium,” states Uma Nair, curator of the show.
Throughout his career, Hore experimented with different printmaking techniques and materials, particularly lithography and intaglio. In this exhibition the viewers get a chance to witness how the artist used the printmaking process to reflect the experiences of violence and trauma. He used knives and red-hot rods to cut and burn into a piece of clay, which then provided the basis for a cement mould that would shape and scar the paper pulp. Talking about his minimalistic approach towards art, Uma says, “The sparse minimalism of the language is resultant of the intensity of the biogenic feeling transformed into dense on-surface visual explication. The fluid delicacy and the poignancy of minimalist expressionism remain as a reflection that is born of suffering. By simulating various kinds of wound marks, made by different kinds of weaponry on corporeal bodies. Through his works, Somnath intensified the feeling of hurt and extended the meaning of the inflicted suffering.”
Beginning with a humanistic figurative style, his work evolved over time into a more simplified style of near total abstraction. In varying degrees his work besides representing the anguished struggle also spoke about endurance, in which technicalities lead on to a more forceful statement of sensitive emotive contents. Uma shares that the six sculptures that represent his historic haunts will be on view at this show. She says, “Somnath’s sculptures were not just beautiful; they worked against the notion of volume and mass and pared it down to metal sheets that he welded together to make a being. ‘His Goat’ and ‘Picking Lice’ are two ephemeral works that keep you rooted to time. His compositions are universal and unique. His sculptures became verses of a strong and steady light, which, without denying the shadows, were about suffering and created an imagery of iconic poignancy in the garb of tragic grandeur.”
Somnath Hore was one of India’s greatest teachers who taught at Santiniketan and later in the 80’s came to Delhi Polytechnic. A master in paper pulp art, in his works the viewer can detect some organic shapes and contortions of the paper surface amid flat or mildly textured spaces of white paper, shares Uma. “The shapes and contortions suggest an organic dynamism, evoking associations of birth, decay and death. The left-out spaces around the hollow areas are porous and freckled and can thus be likened to the quality of the human skin. In this context, the pulp print becomes tactile as well as visual, generating an overall sense of discomfort in the viewer.”
The collection has taken director Reena Lath five years to put together. Reena shares, “Somnath produced a very limited body of work, much of which is now in public collections including that of the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. Our aim was to showcase every aspect of his work to the art lovers.”
