The conceptual artist Hans Haacke was born in 1936 in Cologne, Germany.

Between 1956 and 1960 Haacke studied at Staatl, Germany. He afterwards received a Fulbright Grant(1961-1962), which enabled him to study in Philadelphia at Temple University.

Haacke moved to New York to become an instructor at The Cooper Union. Haacke became known for his work as a conceptual artist. He was and still is very involved in the politics of art. He has been outspoken throughout his career about his belief that museums and galleries are often used by the wealthy to seduce public opinion.

One of his most well-known works, Shapolsky et al. Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, A Real-Time Social System as of 1 May 1971 exposed the malpractice of Harry Shapolsky's real-estate business and caused Haacke's April 1971 exhibition at the Guggenheim to be cancelled. In 1990, Haacke continued to make controversial art with his Cowboy with Cigarette piece. This protested against corporate sponsorship of museums. His painting, Cowboy with Cigarette, was a protest against the Phillip Morris company and the Museum of Modern Art who turned Picasso's Man with a Hat (1912-13) into a cigarette advertisement. Hans Haacke published a book about the ideas and processes behind his and other conceptual art called Framing and Being Framed.

Haacke subsequently became Professor at The Cooper Union, and had solo exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; The Tate Gallery, London; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; the Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.

In 1993 he shared, with Nam Jane Paik, the Golden Lion for the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

Two years later Haacke, together with Pierre Bourdieu, published Free Exchange, a volume of their conversations. Haacke and Bourdieu expressed a shared interest in the relationship between art and politics.

The artist lives and works in New York.