Rolf Kaplan was born in Stockholm 1937. He studied art and handicrafts at the Kunst und Werkschule in Germany 1956 to 1958 and graphics and painting for Adelyne Cross Eriksson in Stockholm 1959 to 1964. (Adelyne had been a student and colleague to Moholy-Nagy at the New Bauhaus in Chicago and set up a Bauhaus school in San Fransisco before she came to Stockholm in 1950.)

Inspired from the studies Rolf set up a small Bauhaus artschool at Atelje 3 which he had until 1968. In 1980 Rolf founded Kaplans Auktioner, an auction company in Stockholm.

Today Rolf is active also as a painter, he experiment with different materials but paints mainly with oil on board.