As artist Somnath Hore’s centenary date passes-by rather solemnly, any endeavour to assess his artistic accomplishments has to be apprehended as an act of momentous volume. Somnath Hore (1921-2006), despite his long career as a practicing artist, remains somewhat a lesser-known individual in the centre-stage of Indian visual arts. His unequivocal obsession with his virtually exclusive theme might be a reason for his comparative obliviousness. His proximate contemporaries like M.F. Husain, K.G. Subramanyan, S.H. Raza, Paritosh Sen etc., despite their vast differences in character and approach, were more in circulation as their art looked, perhaps, more in conformity with the perception of the modern-day connoisseurs and collectors. The compassion and commitment Hore indulges in with a recurring depiction of his foremost concern might be a reason for his lesser celebration than his fellow-artists. One can also argue by referring to his closeness to real life depiction which could be incompatible with the art tendencies of the post-World War-II period whose primary concern was to move away from a naturalistic depiction toward a more abstracted and fragmented expression. However, Somnath was least concerned about all that, and rather than presenting himself as a singular and exceptional genius, he worked unceasingly in silence on themes such as poverty, hunger, deprivation or bereavement with human, and occasionally animal, bodies as its exclusive manifestation. Looking back one and a half century in history, the time which is considered to be more or less the commencing of the modern era in visual arts, we possibly locate one artist whose socio-political commitments and artistic approaches are approximately comparable to that of Somnath Hore. The artist is Kathe Kollwitz (1867-1945), well known German painter, printmaker and sculptor. Kollwitz was an artist from a different generation, gender, location and context. Nevertheless, a discourse on Somnath Hore might get added relevance if references to Kathe Kollwitz’s artistic efforts are mentioned and some comparisons are made possible. Nevertheless, the lives of Kollwitz and Somnath overlap each other for an insignificant few years, Kollwitz having died before even Somnath’s entry into the Calcutta Art School as a novice. Thus, the motivations Somnath absorbed from the works of Kollwitz were mostly the visual impacts created by reproductions of her works in books and journals and might be a few writings on her in those. Somnath had also seen reproductions of Chinese woodcut prints and was deeply moved by them, his works in wood relief prints seem to have inspired by them in his early years. Somnath Hore and Kathe Kollwitz were dissimilar in many ways….
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