Rolf Behm was born in 1952 in Karlsruhe, where he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts between 1972 and 1977 under Peter Ackermann, Hans Baschang, and Markus Lüpertz. After completing his studies, he came to London in 1977 as part of a DAAD scholarship and studied at the St. Martins School of Art. In 1979, he moved to Berlin. In 1984, he received a Villa Romana scholarship and studied for a year in Florence. In 1993, he participated in the 2nd German-Brazilian Artist Workshop in Maceio, Brazil. In 1994, he received a studio scholarship at the Stiftung Starke in Berlin. Rolf Behm lives and works in Berlin and Rio de Janeiro.