Somnath Hore’s artwork to go under the hammer

Celebrating artist Somnath Hore’s centenary, Prinseps is auctioning a repertoire of his works

Decorative is not a term an art connoisseur would use to describe sculptor and printmaker Somnath Hore’s work. A prominent Indian socio-political artist in the post-Independence years, Hore’s art was a reaction to historical crises, events and natural disasters. 

Born in Chittagong in 1921, the artist was deeply affected by what he witnessed during the Bengal famine in 1943, the Tebhaga peasant uprising in 1946-47, the Second World War and the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He documented human suffering without romanticising it and his work, a century later, serves as a window to that era. 

In February 2022, his bronze sculpture titled Wild Boar was sold for ₹1.6 crore at the Pundoles auction. There has been a growing interest in Hore’s art since. Now, Mumbai-based auction house Prinseps is auctioning a collection to mark his centenary year.

Prinseps has been auctioning rare art, film collectibles and books since its inception in 2017. Previous auctions included artworks of Rathindranath Tagore, Bhanu Athaiya and Atul Bose, as well as collectibles from Wadia Movietone, the production company that backed some of India’s earliest films in the 1930s and ‘40s.

The artist travelled extensively in Bengal during the famine and the Tebhaga movement, returning with sketches and images that served as source material for paintings, sculptures, etchings, woodcut, lino cut and pulp print series in his later years. As Brijeshwari Kumari Gohil, vice president and curator at Prinseps, points out, “Somnath Hore’s works are considered to be the most expressive representation of the essence of wounded humanity.”

A double-sided work titled Hiroshima portrays an anguished human form on one side and on the other, shows a physical depiction of a wound as a deep gash. 

Prinseps estimates ₹50,000 to ₹5lakh for several artworks in the 82-lot auction.