Born in 1934 in Gujarat, India, Haku Shah was exposed to the living traditions of India in the form of Tribal art, Folk traditions, and religious practices from a very early age. This combined with his education at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University Baroda, shaped his artistic style. 

His unique artistic sensibility fuses almost aboriginal characters of a herdsman, animals, and elemental symbols with a highly ‘modernized’ formal representation. One sees this in his delineation of form against a background sparing populated with a cow, or selectively chosen image of sun and moon, which could be from any tribal-aboriginal culture from anywhere in the world. This format of representation has quite often earned him the tag of a ‘global’ artist with rural indian sensibilities. Shah strongly holds that art exists where life throbs and thrives. It is no surprise, then, that the natural simplicity and spontaneity of rural life fascinates him.

Shah’s artistic sensibilities were significantly informed by his teachings at the Gandhi Ashram as well as his stint as an ethnographer for NID, both in Ahmedabad. It was during his work at the Gandhi Ashram that he recognised the significance of the Rani Paraj images and thus began his mission of discovering and documenting tribal rituals, culture and their way of life. Further, his Nehru Fellowship enabled him to further his work in the area. 

Over an exhaustive career spanning seven decades, Haku Shah’s works have been showcased at various exhibitions and venues of national and international significance. His contributions to the field of Art, Design and research can be seen through his various publications, documentations, academic pursuits, curatorial research activities and much more. He has been a recipient of many prestigious awards such as 2 Rockefeller Fellowships in New York as well as a Padmashri by the Government of India.