Born in Bombay in 1946, Shamshad Husain did his diploma in Painting from the College of Fine Arts, Baroda, and post- graduation from the Royal College of art, London. Shamshad's artistic career has been formed by several influences. As a son of Maqbool Fida Husain, the celebrated early Indian modern ist Shamshad had to struggle against the immediate and powerful influence of his father to create his own distinct style. But what he has imbibed from the art milieu at home is the pictorial significance of the human figure both as an artistic expression and a statement of faith in man's social existence. This was later reinforced by the prevailing art ideas and ideals in the academic circles in Baroda during his sophomore years.

At the Royal College of Art, his exposure to what was emergent in western art could have broadened the range of his imagery, but his concern in man as a social being has left a permanent impress on his art. It was there that Shamshad adopted the graphic clarity and the essential flatness of the painted surface as important elements for his paintings. Shamshad paints people with a restrained palette and people on everyday social plane appear m pictorial space uncluttered with 'realistic' details of the 'place'. Shamshad won the National Award in 1983, and worked off a Government of India Fellowship during 1983-85. Since he passed out of the College of Fine Art in Baroda in 1968 till the year 1987, Shamshad had about 28 solo shows of his paintings and graphics in Hyderabad, Bombay, Delhi, Baroda, Madras, Bangalore, Copenhagen, London, Hoffhiem in Germany, and Geneva. Between 1964 and 1988, Shamshad participated in numerous national and international group shows and art festivals including the III and IV Triennale International ('75,83), Perth Festival, Australia (1977), Asian Youth Festival, London (1980), Inaugural Exhibition, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal (1982), Tokyo Biennale (1 984), Asian Art, Fukuoka Museum, Japan (1 985), Traveling Print Exhibition, USA (1985-86), Asian Biennale, Dhaka (1986), Ankara Biennale, Turkey (1986), Biennale 1 & 11, Bhopal ('86,88) and the Festival of India, USSR (1987, '88).

The commissioned murals and sculptures executed by him are: two murals in Jaipur and Delhi (1969-70), monumental sculpture of a scientist in Hyderabad (1 98 1), sculpture in fiber glass and a relief in metal in Delhi (1986), and another metal relief in Mussoorie (1988).