Wassily Kandinsky (Russian: first name pronounced as [vas-sih-lee]) (December 16 [or December 4] 1866 – December 13, 1944) was a Russian painter, printmaker and art theorist. One of the most famous 20th-century artists, he is credited with painting the first modern abstract works.
Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa. As a young man he enrolled at the University of Moscow and chose to study law and economics. Quite successful in his profession—he was offered a professorship (chair of Roman Law) at the University of Dorpat—he started painting studies (life-drawing, sketching and anatomy) at the age of 30.
In 1896 he settled in Munich and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. He went back to Moscow in 1914 after World War I started. He was unsympathetic to the official theories on art in Moscow and returned to Germany in 1921.¹
"Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colors, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential."
Recommended books on Wassily Kandinsky:
Masters of Art: Kandinsky (Masters of Art (Harry N. Abrams, Inc.).); Wassily Kandinsky (Prestel Colouring Books); Wassily Kandinsky And Gabriele Munter: Letters And Reminiscences, 1902-1914 (Pegasus Library);
Wassily Kandinsky: 1866-1944 a Revolution in Painting (Basic Art); Wassily Kandinsky, Prestel USA; Kandinsky Compositions (The Museum of Modern Art, New York); Wassily Kandinsky, 1866-1944: The Journey to Abstraction (Big Art Series) Taschen;
Kandinsky: Watercolors and Drawings (Art & Design) Prestel Publishing.
Wassily Kandinsky (Russian: first name pronounced as [vas-sih-lee]) (December 16 [or December 4] 1866 – December 13, 1944) was a Russian painter, printmaker and art theorist. One of the most famous 20th-century artists, he is credited with painting the first modern abstract works.