Born in Chennai in 1919, S. Dhanapal initially trained in painting at the Government College of Art and Crafts there. In 1941, he joined the institution as a faculty member, and in 1957, he was appointed the Head of its sculpture department. Dhanapal was an influential painter and sculptor in post-Independence India. His sculptures, in particular, served as a visual bridge between traditional Eastern and the modern, ever changing Western aesthetic sensibilities.

In 1966, along with K.C.S. Paniker, Dhanapal established the Cholamandal Artists’ Village outside Madras. In 1977 he retired as principal from the Government College of Art and Crafts, and in 1980 he won two fellowships from the Tamil Nadu Lalit Kala Akademi and the Department of Culture of the Government of India. He has exhibited his work in Germany and England in the 1950s and 60s, and subsequently held several other shows of his drawings, paintings and sculptures in India and abroad. In 2007, a retrospective of 52 of his drawings was hosted by the Noble Sage Art Gallery in London. Today, his works are part of several private collections as well as the permanent collections of the National Art Gallery, Chennai, the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, and Parliament House, New Delhi.

S. Dhanapal passed away in 2000.