He was born in 1945, at Chavakkad near Guruvayur in Kerala. Yusuf Arakkal’s mother belonged to the royal family of Arakkal- the only Muslim royal family to have ruled Kerala. His father was a Keyees, the well-known business family based at Kozhikode and Thalassery. Orphaned at a young age, Yusuf Arakkal trained in the fine arts from the KCP in Bengaluru, from where he gained a diploma in it. Arakkal then later moved on to specialize in the art of graphic print making from the National Academy community studios, Garhi, Delhi.
Arakkal received several awards for his work in his lifetime, the most recent one being the Florence Internazionale Biennale- award constituted in the memory of Florentine statesman Lorenzo de Medici- in Florence, Italy, for his work Bacon’s Man with the Child and Priest. He was also decorated with awards including Karnataka Lalithkala Academy award in 1979 and 1981, a national award in 1983, a special award at the third Asian Art Biennale Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1986 and the Karnataka Lalithkala Academy honor in 1989. Yusuf Arakkal created wide ranging art works in his lifetime, including drawings, paintings, sculptures, murals, paper works, prints, and writing.
