Untitled (Fear)

Somnath Hore

A humanist artist, Somnath Hore’s artistic practice documented the pathos of the human condition across a variety of techniques and mediums. Hore grew up during a pivotal time of history, where he experienced the threat of World War II, the belligerent side-effects of colonialism such as the Bengal famine, and the general misery caused by rural poverty. He joined the banned Communist Party and briefly became an activist artist. As he had to go underground during his stint with the Communist Party, his formal education had to suffer a sabbatical. When he resumed his art education at the Government School of Art in 1951, his two mentors and teachers, Zainul Abedin and Safiuddin Ahmed, had left. From Safiuddin Ahmed, Hore had learnt the techniques of printmaking, especially the ways of wood engraving and making woodcut matrices that resulted in prints which had distinctive hues of light and shade. Like several artists and artisans over centuries, Hore was fascinated by capturing human relationships, particularly the relationship between a mother and a child. He explored the theme in various works, some capturing the suffering from the horrors of the Bengal famine are particularly evocative.

In this woodcut, Hore has perhaps captured a scene of emotional negotiation between a mother and child. Donned in a burqa, her expressions are invisible to the viewer as the artist has also refrained from rendering her eyes. The mother clutches the hand of the child in front of her with one hand, and places another on the top of his head. The child also leans into her embrace and reaches upwards for his mother’s arm. However, unlike the veiled portrayal of the mother, the child has an expression of fear on his face. Possibly, he has witnessed a gruesome event and is clinging to his mother for both emotional and physical support. Perhaps the mother too is feeling the horror, but due to the lack of expressions, one can only conjecture her feelings.