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Somnath Hore

Somnath Hore’s commitment to documenting human suffering and anguish traversed various mediums from prints to sculptures and emerged as the primary thematic dialogue throughout his artistic career. This woodcut print reveals a distressing image of a frail, malnourished man supporting his entire weight on a bamboo lathi (stick). As if entirely resigning to his tragic fate ahead of him, the elderly man with drooping shoulders, a humped back and sagging skin stretched across his bony body, lowers his head in dismay. Hore highlights every protruding bone, loss of body tissue and muscle to capture this bleak image of a man who has submitted to a system that has failed him. His sole focus on the subject without detailing background elements further heightens the devastation of the figure, an unwarranted recipient of a man-made famine.

The suffering of the famine was so severe that over 3 million individuals succumbed to it across Bengal, a result of the unjust policies of the imperialist government. Hore’s body of work not only brings light to the historical events marred with atrocities and intentional negligence, but also highlights the need for collective human intervention to advocate for the marginalized.