Gerhard Kurt Müller was born in Leipzig in 1926. In 1948 he began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig with Elisabeth Voigt and Kurt Massloff. This was followed by a teaching position and professorship at the university from 1964 to 1968, at the same time he was also the rector there from 1964 to 1966. In 1968 he left the university and worked as a freelance painter and graphic artist in Leipzig. In 1988 he took part in the Venice Biennale. In 2004, he founded the non-profit Gerhard Kurt Müller Foundation with Ilse Stein. Müller died in Leipzig in 2019.