Somnath Hore is one of the pioneers of the twentieth century modern art movement in India. He is recognized not only as an important artist but also as a social activist, who has over the years – boldly used his extraordinary talents as Graphic artist. He learned the technique of print making at the Govt. College of Art and Craft in Calcutta.
He is respected not only as an important print-maker but also as a versatile printer and sculptor to express his own personal angst a socio-political system which breeds acts of violence. The most poignant and powerful statement made by Somnath as an artist is his ‘Wounds’ Series, depicting man’s inhumanity towards man. It was the cataclysmic decades of the 1940’s – especially the Bengal Famine of 1943 which shaped and molded his consciousness as an artist. Somnath Hore lived most of his later life at Santiniketan and taught at Kala Bhavana as a professor of Graphic Art.
Education :
- 1957 : Diploma in Fine Arts, Government College of Art and Craft, Calcutta
Exhibitions :
- 1995 : CIMA
- 1991 : Calcutta
- 1968 : Calcutta
- 1967, 1965, 1963, 1960 : New Delhi
- Contemporary Indian Art - USSR, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria
Group Shows :
- 1993 : Wounds, CIMA, Calcutta
- 1991 : National Exposition of Contemporary Art, NGMA, New Delhi
- 1986 : First Visions, BAAC
- 1968 : 1st Triennale of World Art, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
- 1968 : Warsaw Biennale of Graphic Arts, Poland
- 1963 : Sao Paulo Biennale Brazil
- 1962 : Print Biennale, Tokyo, Japan
- 1962 : Biennale, Venice, Italy
- 1960 : Graphic Biennale, Lugano
Awards :
- 2007 : Padma Bhushana by Govt. of India
- 1984 : Gagan-Aban Award
- 1977 : L. N. Gupta Memorial Award
- 1963, 1962, 1960 : National Award, Lalit Kala Academy
