Santosh was an acclaimed mystic poet in Kashmiri, and also wrote profusely in Urdu His Urdu novel Samandar Pyasa Hai received high praise, and his collection of poems in Kashmiri titled Besukh Ruh won him a Sahitya Akademi Award in 1979 He held over 30 one-man shows in India, USA, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore He participated in several notable international exhibitions including the Sao Paolo Biennale (1969,1972), Triennale-India (1968,78), ‘Contemporary Indian Art’, the Neo-Tantra Art, UCLA, Los Angeles (1986) and National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi (1984) He was awarded the National Award in 1973, the Padma Shri in 1977 and also received the Artist of the Year Award in 1984 Gulam Rasool Santosh passed away in New Delhi in 1997