Max Kaminski was born in 1938 in Königsberg (today Kaliningrad, Russia). From 1959 to 1967 he studied at the University of the Fine Arts in West Berlin under Peter Janssen and was in Hann Trier’s master class. In 1968–69 he worked in Paris and in 1972 at the Villa Romana in Florence. In 1974 he was awarded the Böttcherstrasse Bremen Prize. He took part in documenta 6 in 1977 and garnered the Art Prize of the City of Darmstadt. From 1980 to 2006 he taught as professor at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe. Kaminski died in Augsburg (Bavaria) in 2019.