Himmat Shah was born in Lothal, Gujarat in 1933. He moved to Bhavnagar as a young boy and studied at Gharshala, a school affiliated to Dakshinamurti, the intellectual and cultural centre of the nationalist renaissance in Gujarat. At Gharshala, Himmat found his initiation into an-practice through artist-educator Jagubhai Shah even before joining the J J School of Art in Bombay, and then moving on to Baroda on a government cultural scholarship from 1956 to 1960. His works have inspiration from artist like N.S. Bendre in whom he saw the image of a modern artist, and from K.G. Subramanyan whose quest for language and appraisal of folk art stimulated him. Himmat Shah was a member of Group 1890, a short-lived artists' collective founded by J. Swaminathan. The then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, opened the group's first and only show in 1963. Himmat Shah then received a French Government scholarship on the recommendation of Octavio Paz, the poet diplomat. He went on to study etching at Atelier 17 under SW Hayeter and Krishna Reddy in Paris in 1967. He is considered a natural painter. His works appealed to him in his negotiations with form and space. Upon looking at his paintings closely, one can discover the skill behind the chaotic black lines.