Max Uhlig was born in 1937 in Dresden. From 1955 to 1960 he studied graphic art at the Academy of Art in Dresden. Until 1963 he was a master student of Hans Theo Richter. He received the Käthe Kollwitz Prize of the Academy of Arts of the GDR in 1987. He was professor at the Academy of Art in Dresden from 1995 to 2002. In 2003 he received the Art Prize of the State Capital Dresden, and the Art Prize of the Chemnitz Foundation in Honour of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff in 2020. Uhlig lives and works in Dresden.