Dhanraj Bhagat is one of the foremost Modernist sculptors to emerge from the subcontinent Born in Lahore in 1917, the artist studied sculpture at Mayo College of Art in Lahore From 1947 to 1977 he joined the Department of Sculpture at Delhi Polytechnic first, as a faculty member and later, as the Head of Department He also founded the Delhi Silpi Chakra in 1949 alongside BC Sanyal, Kanwal Krishna, KS Kulkarni and PN Mago 

His earliest works were realistic paintings of landscapes and rural scenes After this, he would graduate to working in clay and later several other materials like plaster of Paris, papier mache, cement, copper and brass among others He finally settled on wood as his preferred medium, creating impressive geometric works His early sculptures that were executed pre-Partition featured highly polished surfaces whereas the sculptures created post-partition had a rough and raw quality to them This was reflective of the political turmoil and violence of the time His vocabulary was shaped by national as well as Western sensibilities, resulting in intricate geometric works 

Among the many solo and group shows Bhagat’s works have been exhibited in, the most notable are a retrospective at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Mumbai (2018), the 6th Sao Paulo Biennale (1961) and India Triennale (1968, 1971, 1975) He was also awarded the National Award by Lalit Kala Academy (1961) and the Padma Shri (1977)

The artist passed away in 1988