Osian's Auction Catalogue Creative India Series 1 Bengal | December 2011

s oMnath h oRe 13 April 1921 – 28 June 2006 Communist Party Rally Oil on canvas, 1955 S/d in Bengali ‘Somnath 55.’ l.l. 11.1 x 17.0 in (28.2 x 43.3 cm) Condition Good, previously restored (full lining given, paint layer consolidated). Provenance Acquired by Chitrakoot Art Gallery in the Late 1990s ` 1,000,000 – 1,500,000 US$ 20,000 – 30,000 Full image for Lot 94 on pp.212-213. 94 1780 1800 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1910 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 2000 211 210 Creative India BENGAL | Somnath Hore & Santiniketan “Social consciousness and commitment can inspire artists to produce great work, but when politics become party politics, then it cannot inspire true creativity. From personal experience I have found that politics can be abstract to the point of absurdity, in the sense of being totally divorced from reality... Communism is a result of social consciousness attained through the intellect. Art, in all its forms, is an inborn faculty. Communism may inspire an artist to create great art, but it cannot turn a person who does not have the necessary creativity into an artist. For example, my one concept has been Wounds. If a viewer discovers only its thematic content and misses the aesthetic values, then the whole exercise has been futile, and time will relegate these works into the dust bin of history. Actual events fade away in course of time, but aesthetics engulf time.” [Somnath Hore (1991), rpt. in Sarkar, Rakhi [Director] [1995]. Somnath Hore: Bronzes. Calcutta: [ExC.] CIMA; p.18.]