KOCHI: An exhibition of art works by renowned artist Somnath Hore who is regarded as the premier print maker of India has begun at the Durbar Hall Art Centre. Former minister M A Baby inaugurated the exhibition, organized by Kerala Lalithakala Akademi in association with Kolkata-based Seagull Foundation for the Arts.
Tea Garden Journal and other prints and drawings by Somnath Hore are being exhibited in the month-long exhibition. Somnath Hore’s sketches and prints on major historical crisis and events of 20th century Bengal such as the Bengal Famine and Tebhaga movement are very famous.
Somnath Hore, an expert in lithography and intaglio, studied print making from Government Art College in Kolkata. It was during these years he became attracted to the ideology of the communist party. His early works were greatly influenced by socialist ideologies.
He developed his own distinct print making techniques, including pulp-print technique which was used in the critically acclaimed ‘Wounds’ series of prints.
He was head of Graphics and Printmaking Department of Santiniketan and maintained a close relation with well-known artists K G Subramanyan and Ramkinkar Baij. In the 1970s, Hore started making sculptures.
His bronze sculptures recalled agonies of famine and war. Mother and Child, a sculpture by Somnath Hore in tribute to the sufferings of the people of Vietnam during the war that was stolen from Kala Bhavan soon after it was unveiled, is yet to be traced. He passed away at the age of 85 in 2006.
As part of the exhibition, an interactive session ‘Meet with the art historian’, on the complexities, including socio-political, faced by contemporary art world with Prof R Sivakumar will be held at 5 pm on Saturday. A slideshow by renowned sculptor K S Radhakrishnan, ‘Njan Kanda Somnath Hore’, will also be held as part of the exhibition at 5pm on June 2, 2017. The exhibition is on during all days, except Mondays and can be visited from 11am to 7pm.
The ongoing exhibition at the Durbar Hall Art Centre takes the viewer on a journey through artist Somnath Hore’s works