Kandinsky, Wassily
RussianDec
4, 1886 - Dec 13, 1944
Wassily Vasilyevich Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866 and spent his early years as an amateur painter and musician playing cello and piano. He entered the University of Moscow in 1886 and studied economics and law. At the age of thirty he left for Germany to become a painter, drawn by a childhood belief that each color had a mysterious life of its own. He studied art in Munich and was influenced by Impressionism, Art Nouveau, Pointillism, and the bold, brilliant colors used by the Fauves. His work prior to 1909 is naturalistic, but his paintings after 1909 become loosely organized and the colors more bright and vivid. He became active in the German avant-garde movement and formed his own group, the Blue Rider, with German painter Franz Marc. By 1913, Kandinsky's works were considered the first totally abstract paintings, entirely non-representational. He felt a strong connection between colors and music and often titled his works with music related terminology, including composition, improvisation, and harmony. He produced works throughtout the Blue Rider period that were abstract in addition to figurative paintings. His later works in Abstract Expressionism lose their gestural quality and instead were ordered, clear patterns of circles, arcs, lines and various geometric forms.
Kandinsky died on December 13, 1944 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. His influence on Modern art lies not only in his paintings but with his work as a teacher and as an art theorist. His theories regarding abstraction were explored in his 1912 book entitled Concerning The Spiritual in Art. He is regarded as an innovator of Modern art and an originator of Abstract Expressionism.
