Somnath Hore was born in 1921 in the village of Barama in Chittagong, now in Bangladesh. At a very early age, Hore started making posters for the Communist Party. It was at the instance of the party leader P C Joshi that Hore was admitted to the Government College of Art & Craft. From 1954 onwards, Hore started experimenting significantly with the printmaking process. Between 1954 and 195 8, he was a lecturer at the Indian College of Art & Draughtsmanship in Calcutta. From 1958 to 1967, he held several posts such as charge of the graphic section of the Delhi College of Arts visiting professor of the MS University, Baroda and Visva Bharati, Shantiniketan, and head of the graphic art department of Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati. He joined the Society of Contemporary Artists in 1960. A lifetime of inventive experiments with etching, intaglio, and lithographs culminated in the abstract while on while Wounds series in 1971. Dramatized with a spot of red, the white-on-white prints reflected the political turbulence of the times. Prints were taken with paper pulp pressed on molded cement matrices. The molds were made from originals made in clay. Hore began doing bronze sculptures from 1974 onwards. Hore's figuration has always reflected the anguished human body. His sculpture is no different but the imprint of the hand of the creator is more startlingly manifest in his sculptures. The torn and rugged surfaces, rough planes with slits and holes, subtle modeling and axial shifts, and exposed channels, all make for exciting visual and tactile sculptures.