Born in 1934, Haku Shah graduated in Fine Arts from M.S. University, Baroda in 1955. In 1959, he did his Masters in fine Arts from the same university.

Haku Shah is a painter, cultural anthropologist, teacher and author of international repute. He has several important awards and honours to his credit including the Nehru Fellowship, the Rockefeller Grant and the Padma Shree. He has lectured as a regent professor at the University of California in Davis. As an artist, he combines different disciplines such as design, photography, film and writing in his creative expression. Apart from seminal works on tribal and folk art, he has written and illustrated several books for children such as Campa and Dharti. Amongst the important projects, he has worked on are the Shilpgram in Udaipur where he created a permanent craft village and the Art of Unknown India Exhibition which travelled all over the US.

Haku Shah received the best individual artist award for Haman Hain Ishq from the India Habitat Centre in 2003.