Hartmut Neumann was born in 1954 in Delmenhorst (Lower Saxony). From 1976 to 1980 he studied at the University of Arts in Bremen. In 1981 he received the prize of the Young Art Forum, in 1983 the Young West art prize, in 1988 the Art Prize of the German Association of Artists and in 2003 the Willi Oltmanns Prize. Scholarships enabled him to study in Paris and Rome. Since 1992 he has taught as a professor at the University of Fine Arts in Braunschweig. Neumann lives and works in Cologne and Braunschweig (Lower Saxony).