Maxim Karlovich Kantor (Russian: Макси́м Ка́рлович Ка́нтор), (b. December 1957) is a Russian painter and writer writer whose main published work is a book called "The Drawing Textbook" printed in 2006.
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.
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. His last novel V tou storonou ("That way") establishes a parallel between the financial crisis and a malignant tumor. This book should be translated soon.