Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Antiquities and Modern and Contemporary Fine Arts | June 2015

Somnath Hore 13 April 1921 – 28 June 2006 Seated Girl Bronze (Single Edition), 1981 Initialled and dated in English ‘SH 81’ l.r. on back 11.9 x 8.3 x 4.3 in (30.2 x 21.0 x 11.0 cm) Provenance Property from an Eminent Private Collection, New Delhi; formerly from the Mullick Family Collection - the family of Somnath Hore’s Chief Caster. ` 1,500,000 – 2,250,000 US$ 25,000 – 37,500 GBP 15,000 – 22,500 “The metal sculptures of Somnath are examples par excellence of perfect interpenetration of techniques of making and the language of expression, of idiom of expression and the conceptual content. The images indeed represent a convergence of the structural elements of metal sculpture making,of the human and animal figures and of the concept. The armatures, air vents and the escape pipes of the molten metal are arranged in such a manner as they form the skeletal structures of the figures with bones, veins and all that. The sheets of thin metal over the torso and the head of a figure is, at the same time, like a skin covering the bones with no flesh intervening and a bandage covering the wounds. The ends of the metal sheets join in such a manner as it suggests a slashed-open skin or skins with marks of surgical operation or showing naked bones. They are like living apparitions from scenes of destruction walking down the corridors of hospital after being attended to.” – Ray, Pranabranjan [Text] [nd (c.1984)]. Somnath Hore. New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi; p.9] “In varying degrees in his sculptures, prints and paintings, besides the haunting sight of an anguished struggle, it is a sustained feeling of the possibility of endurance and hope that permeates the work of Somnath Hore, whereby all is not altogether bleak. The work-process allows technicalities to lead on to a more forceful statement of sensitive emotive contents...rescuing them from immediate topicality, thereby harnessing experience into expression.” – Majumdar, Soumik Nandy & Sanjoy Mallik [2002]. Somnath Hore: A Focus. New Delhi: [JOU] Lalit Kala Contemporary No.45 (LKA); p.46] AN IMPORTANT SINGLE EDITION SCULPTURE BY MASTER ARTIST - SOMNATH HORE 66 148