Sudhir Khastgir studied under Nandalal Bose at Kala Bhavan, Shantiniketan. He was a painter and sculptor who focused on the real as well as mythical. Like his classmate Ramkinkar Baij, he idealized the farmer and indulged in painting landscapes. His images are spontaneous and forceful and verge on the canons of modernity seen in Shantiniketan.

He began his teaching career at the Scindia School, Gwalior in 1933 and two years later joined the Doon School, Dehradun where he taught for 20 years. Subsequently, he became principal of the Government College of Arts & Crafts, Lucknow from 1956-62.

Khastgir had his first solo exhibition in London at the prestigious India House in 1939 and many more thereafter, including at Cama Oriental Institute Hall, Bombay in 1945, Imperial Institute, London in 1947, India Museum, Calcutta in 1953 and Burnpore, West Bengal in 1954. He had received a traveling Fellowship by the Deutsch Academy of Munich in 1937 and in 1958 was awarded the 'Padmashri' by the Indian Government. He died in 1974.