Hans Platschek, born in Berlin in 1923, moved with his family to South America in 1939. He started to study at the Art Academy in Montevideo where he became the chairman of the Uruguay art student association. The artist also co-founded an institute for modern art and was one of the publishers of the culture magazine "Clima". His first single exibitions took place in Montevideo in 1948, his first lectures at the University of Santiago de Chile in 1951. In the following years until 1953 Platschek lived in Montevideo and Buenos Aires. After his return to Germany in 1953 he met Max Ernst, Raoul Hausmann, Tristan Tzara, Hans Arp and Asger Jorn in Paris. In 1955 Platschek moved to Munich. The Munich Galerie van der Loo started exhibiting his works in 1957 and regularly co-operated with him over the next few years. Due to his participation in the XXIV. Venice Biennale in 1958 Platschek and Jorn created a leaflet for the "Situationist International". Hans Platschek presented his work in the subsequent years at different international exhibitions, such as at documenta II., winning numerous awards. The Ulm School of Design appointed him to a guest lectureship in 1963. In the years to follow Platschek moved houses several times, first to Rome, later to London and then settled in Hamburg. During this period Platschek published several books dealing with art and the activities involved. In 1989 Galerie Gabriele von Loeper, Hamburg and Galerie van de Loo, Munich had single exhibitions on the occasion of his 75th birthday. The Kunsthalle in Emden, a museum in Emden in East Friesland, organised a retrospective of the artist's work in 1999. Hans Platschek died in Hamburg in 2000.