Henk Ngantung was born in the Minahasa heartland of North Sulawesi province, in the capital city of Manado to a poor family.

Together with Chairil Anwar and Asrul Sani, he co-founded the Indonesian artistic movement Gelanggang (meaning the arena).

President Sukarno entrusted him of turning Jakarta into a city of culture based on his work as an artist.

In 1990, the Indonesian businessman and philanthropist Ciputra sponsored Henk Ngantung's one and only official exhibition just a month before his death on 12 December 1991.

[2][3] His portrait of Brigadier John Mellsop (1907–1980), painted in Java in 1946, is in the collection of the National Army Museum, London.