Kishen Khanna was born in Lahore in 1925, Khanna learnt the tools of his trade at the evening classes conducted at the Mayo School of Art, Lahore. In the wake of India's partition he moved to Simla and thereafter to Delhi where he currently lives and works. So far, he has had over forty one-man shows held at galleries in India and abroad. He has participated in the Tokyo Biennale, in 1957 and 1961, the Sao Paulo Biennale (1960) and in the Venice Biennale (1962). He won the National Award of the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi in 1965, the Gold Medal at the First Triennale of Contemporary World Art, New Delhi in 1968. He was a recipient of Padma Shree, awarded by the President of India, in 1990.