Hans Matthäus Bachmayer was born in Bayersoien in Bavaria on 18 September 1940. After an apprenticeship as a woodcarver (1954-1958) in Oberammergau he decided to study sculpture at the Munich Akademie für Bildende Künste. As a student he joined the artist group "Wir" with Reinhold Heller, Florean Köhler, Heino Naujoks and Helmut Rieger. In April 1965 the groups "Wir" and "Spur" began collaborating and finally joined up in spring 1966, changing their names to "Geflecht". The dynamic energy of this group expressed itself in so-called "Anti-Objekte": relief-like constructions made of coloured, bent wire and plates in front of coloured backgrounds. The group "Geflecht" described these objets as: "painting, sculpture and colour form a unity, they define each other in the process of creation and thus become inseparable. The result is a coloured web in space: the 'Anti-Objekt'. Space can be read in time". Not the exterior "Gestalt" of the objects is important for the design of the environment but rather the process of creation. The group dissolved in 1967 and was succeeded by the "Kollektiv Herzogstrasse" which was active until 1981. Bachmayer was also a member of this group. Bachmayer studied philosophy and sociology at the universities of Frankfurt am Main and Munich from 1975 to 1981, graduating with a PhD in philosophy in 1981. In the same year he was awarded the "Kunstförderpreis" of the city of Munich. His oeuvre includes large expressive paintings; his sculptures consist of pieces of wood - mostly pieces of scrap - that he glues together, forming bizarre constructions. There is an interesting tension between colour and form caused by the expressive colouring of the crude surfaces.