Born 1937 in Crimmitschau near Zwickau (Saxony), Peter Graf attended drawing courses at the Zwickau adult education center from 1949 to 1950 under the direction of Karl Michel. In 1952, he moved to Dresden, where he took lessons from Heinz Drache and formed close friendships with artists such as Winfried Dierske, Peter Herrmann, Ralf Winkler (A.R. Penck), and Peter Makolies. Starting in 1953, he was a student of Jürgen Böttcher (Strawalde) in evening courses at the adult education center. In 1956, Graf began his studies at the Weissensee University of the Arts under Toni Mau in East Berlin. In 1971, he was one of the co-founders of the artist group “Lücke” and joined the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR in 1975. His work was honored with numerous awards, including the Hans-Theo Richter Prize of the Saxon Academy of Arts (2001). From 1985, he worked as a freelance artist in Dresden and later in Radebeul, where he lives with his family since 2002.