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Somnath Hore

From the 1950s onwards, Somnath Hore’s practice of drawing and painting was accompanied by a series of experimentations in print mediums. In this monochromatic woodcut print executed in 1953, a reclining man and his four-legged companion are seen resting quietly on the ground. He uses his arm to cushion his head while his folded legs provide support for the resting puppy. What could have appeared as a visual of two companions in peaceful slumber is disrupted by the reality of their situation.

Poverty-stricken and recipients of a devastating man-made famine that ravaged Bengal in 1943, the skeletal figures with their protruding rib cages, visible thorax, sunken and distended bellies, rely upon each other for whatever little comfort one can find in such desperate times. Hore traveled across Bengal documenting the devastations and repercussions of the famine which continued to appear in his visual language as images, forms, and concepts throughout his artistic journey.