Maxim Karlovich Kantor (b. December 1957) is a celebrated Russian painter. Born in December 1957, Moscow. He studied at the Moscow Art Polygraph Institute, graduating in 1980. In 1983 he organized the independent group of painters that was later called "Krasny Dom" ("Red House"). The group made a number of unofficial, one-day exhibitions, the most famous took place at the Institute of Philosophy, Moscow, 1984; and after that, participated in many exhibitions of the Moscow "underground" without official permissions. He also published a controversial book called "The Drawing Textbook" in 2006. Later Kantor was invited to Germany by Henry Nannen for his first personal exhibition in Germany, and henceforth has moved between Western Europe, the United States and Moscow, including such places as Düsseldorf (1988), Frankfurt (1989), Boston (1990), Berlin (1990-92) and Hannover (1992). From 1997 he has kept permanent workshops in Moscow and London.