The Calcutta Group and political art

World War II brought the Bengal famine, which drove the rural poor into the cities.

In 1943, the sculptor Prodosh Das Gupta led the Calcutta Group (with Nirode Mazumdar, Paritosh Sen, Gopal Ghose, Rathin Moitra and others). They rejected the Bengal School as sentimental, and wanted a universal art about their own times, simplified to stress material, form, colour and texture.

Many young Calcutta artists were drawn to socialism and Marxism, which questioned class differences.

Chittoprasad and Somnath Hore used printmaking, because prints could reach more people. The Communist Party sent Chittoprasad to the famine villages, and his sketches were published as the pamphlet 'Hungry Bengal'.

Somnath Hore's etching 'Children' (1958) shows five skeletal, famine-stricken children, with no background; their ribs are etched like wounds.