"We do not choose suffering, and often we do not choose heroism. But suffering often compels us to be heroic. Somnath Hore (1921–2006) was an artist who led a quiet and heroic life. Quiet because he always kept himself away from the glare of the art world; and heroic because he chose to stand by the suffering and held steadfast to his political and thematic commitments even though he knew this meant treading a lonely path. He kept himself away from the din of art not because art was a lesser passion for him but because life mattered more and art that did not stand witness to human suffering did not mean much to him. And human suffering was for him, as a Communist, not an existential predicament, into which we are all born but something always socially engendered."
-R. Siva Kumar