Untitled

Somnath Hore

When Somnath Hore saw the bombardment of Patia, his neighbouring village, he was horror-struck. Before him lay a landscape of devastation: corpses of children, adults and animals, and those who were brutally wounded, their homes and belongings destroyed. In an emotional response to what he was witnessing, he made sketches of the scene.

His experimentations with printmaking in the 1950s led to his mastery of the medium. In this woodcut, a memory from the aftermath of the Japanese bombings is captured. A small boy lies wounded on his side, clutching his leg in pain. His expressions are hidden from the viewer, but the pitiable condition of his injury and separation from family members, who might be dead or wounded themselves, is apparent. In the foreground, what appears to be a few scratches is, in reality, spilled blood. The white and black, monotone nature of the print spares the viewer from witnessing the intensity of gore.