Satish Gujral is among the few artist who have constantly dominated the Indian art scene and internationally acclaimed for his multi-talent in paintings, graphics, mural, sculpture, architecture and interior design.

Satish Gujral was born in Jhelum in 1925 in pre-partition West Punjab. At the age of eight, a sickness terminally impaired his hearing. During his early years of sickness, `entombed in silence` as described by him, he passed his time reading Urdu literature and doodling with a pencil on paper. In 1939 he was enrolled to the Mayo School of Art in Lahore to study Applied Arts.

The school taught various techniques of stone and woodcarving, metal smothery, clay modeling, drawing and design. He also had to perform scale drawing and copying of the ground plans and elevations of old buildings. After passing from Mayo School Satish Gujral joined Sir J.J. School of Art in Bombay in 1944 for further study of painting. During the year 1944-47 he came into contact of many artists of progressive groups namely S.H. Raza, EN. Souza, P.N. Mago, Jehangir Sabavala, M.F. Husain and others. Gujral could not accept the adaptation of techniques and vocabulary of European Expressionism and Cubism and his search began for the kind of modernism rooted in Indian tradition. In 1947 he had to leave his study at J.J.School due to resurgence of his illness.

In 1952 Satish Gujral left for Mexico on a scholarship for an apprenticeship with Diego Rivera and David Sequeiros His paintings and graphics are mainly dominated by the social content.

The pain and anguish of homeless during the partition of the country took shape in his artwork and his brush sweeps with quick strokes to reveal the anger. His sculptures were made with industrial materials like still, copper, glass and are often painted in strong enamel colors. Be it painting, be it sculpture or mural, Satish Gujral`s search always went on for what was living and life giving to the traditional arts and crafts of India. Later he tried out junk sculptures, introducing light and sound to them.

From 1952 to 1974 Satish Gujral had numerous solo exhibitions of his sculptures, paintings and graphics in Mexico City, New York, New Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Montreal, Rome, Berlin, Tokyo, Buenos Aires and Stockholm. Since the late `80s up to the recent years, Satish Gujral`s paintings and sculptures further diversified both in terms of materials and content. His sculptures with burnt wood have a kind of slimily with the visceral forms of human and otherwise. Satish Gujral formed committees to make large murals, mostly in mosaic and ceramic tiles and later he took interest in machined steel elements as immediate architectural context.

By 1977 Satish Gujral had made many murals for Punjab University, Chandigarh, Odeon Cinema, New Delhi (1962), World Trade Fair, New York (1963), Oberoi Hotel, New Delhi (1964), Northern Railway, New Delhi (1966), Ministry of Education, Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi (1968), Agricultural University, Hissar (1970, `73, `86), Oberoi Towers, Bombay (1971-72), The Palace of the Sultan of Muscat (1975), Delhi High Court (1976), Gandhi Institute, Mauritius (1977) and World Trade Centre, New York (1980). The year 1977 is important because in this year Satish Gujral started exploring the elusive vocabulary of International Style in modem architecture.

He designed the Daryani House, New Delhi (1977), Modi House (1978), Gandhi Institute (1978-79), Datwani House (1979- 90), Modi House (1980-82), Belgian Embassy, New Delhi (1980-83), and Dass House, New Delhi (1983-85). In 1986 Satish Gujral designed the Goa University and the CMC, Hyderabad, Palace AI-Bwordy, Dubai, and the Indian Ambassador`s house in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Since the early days of his career Satish Gujral has won several honors and recognition. Some of them can be named as The National Award for Painting (1956, 1957), National Award for Sculpture (1972), State Honour from the Government of Punjab (1979), and the Order of the Crown, Belgium, for Architecture (1983). Citizens of Delhi had honoured Gujral as one of its twenty-five most honorable citizens. In the year 1999 he was awarded by the highest accolade of Indian Government, the `Padma Vibhushan`.

Dozens of documentaries have been made showing the work and life of Satish Gujral. A full feature film portraying his life is still on make. Four books on his works have been published which also includes his autobiography `A Brush with Life`.