Ulrich Erben was born in Düsseldorf and studied from 1958 to 1965 in Hamburg and Urbino primarily in graphical techniques. He took some additional semesters in painting at the art academies in Venice and Berlin. His early work was affected by objectivity, but towards the end of the 1960s Erben found his way to concrete painting with monochrome white pictures.

He became well-known by the exhibition "Geplante Malerei" (planned painting), which took place in 1974 in the Westphalian Art Association, and by Erben's participation in documenta 6 in 1977. After the first white paintings the artist turned to chromatic colors again, which he used pure and unbroken in order to address their character. In 1980 Erb...