Somnath Hore: Art of Wounds

This volume talks about artist Somnath Hore’s paper-pulp prints series titled Wounds, its inception, making, and perceptions about and around the main theme. Somnath Hore was born in Chittagong (now in Bangladesh) in 1921. By the 1950s, he earned a name as one of the premier printmakers in India, and headed the Graphics and Printmaking Department at Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan. Hore started the paper-pulp print series Wounds in the late 1960s as a response to the Naxalite movement in India and the social unrest around the world. The artist felt the intense need to translate his witnessing of the many problematic realities into art in the form of ‘wounds’. He wanted to reproduce the essence of a cut or injury with his works using printmaking, turning to intense research and experimentation with the red and white colors and the light and shadow effect on a three-dimensional model to reach a satisfactory outcome. This volume talks about the series, its inception, making, and perceptions about and around the main theme.