Paintingfeather | Wassily Kandinsky paintings

The Russian painter and graphic artist Wassily Kandinsky was one of the great masters of modern art, as well as the outstanding representative of pure abstract painting (using only colors and forms) that dominated the first half of the twentieth century.

Early years in Russia

Wassily Kandinsky was born on December 4, 1866, in Moscow, Russia. His father was a tea merchant. When he was five years old the family moved to Odessa, Russia. The young Kandinsky drew, wrote poems, and played the piano and the cello. Because his family was fond of traveling, Kandinsky got to see the Italian cities of Venice, Rome, and Florence as a young boy. He was also influenced by the imposing Muscovite (from Moscow) buildings such as the Kremlin.

Wassily Kandinsky | Untitled, 1921 Oil on canvas

An early champion of abstract painting, Wassily Kandinsky is known for his lyrical style and innovative theories on nonfigurative art. In his 1910 treatise Concerning the Spiritual In Art, Kandinsky made famous his belief that abstract colors and forms can be used to express the “inner life” of the artist. Kandinsky taught this and other lessons at the Bauhaus, the historic Weimar institution that brought together artists including Joseph AlbersLazlo Maholy-Nagy, and Piet Mondrian, amongst others. Kandinsky had a strong interest in the relationship between art and classical music, this theme apparent in his orchestral Composition VI (1913), where colliding forms and colors move across the canvas. In 1911 Kandinsky played a central role in organizing Der Blaue Reiter, a group of artists named in part after Kandinsky’s favorite color, blue.

Russian, 1866-1944, Moscow, Russia