Helmut Metzner was born in 1946 in Sigmaringen (Baden-Württemberg). From 1971 to 1976 he studied painting at the University of Arts in West Berlin. In 1977 a one-year DAAD scholarship took him to New York. In 2007 he was commissioned to paint a mural in the rebuilt Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Thuringia. Metzner lives and works in Berlin and Brandenburg.