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Wassily Kandinsky (1866 - 1944)

Wassily Kandinsky is often considered to be the founder of abstract art. Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866 to musician parents. He learned the piano and cello at an early age and it was music that often inspired Kandinsky's paintings. This is evident in the titles of his paintings, such as Harmonie Tranquille, Lyric (Man on a Horse), and Accord Reciproque. Kandinsky used the canvas to compose. He created harmonies of pure abstraction with form and color.

At the age of thirty, after teaching law and economics, Kandinsky left Moscow to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (1900-1996). His writings on spirituality often provide the greatest insight into his motivations as a painter. He used the properties of form and color to evoke the interior landscapes of emotions and "to cause vibrations in the soul".

Around 1913, Kandinsky began to work in what would come to be known as his famous non-representational style of painting. The paintings that he created during this period, such as Farbstudie Quadreate, 1913, were considered to be the first totally abstract paintings in modern art. These paintings became the groundwork for what would later be known as the school of Abstract Expressionism.

After World War I (1914-1918), Kandinsky's work became increasingly geometric. He taught at the Moscow Academy of Fine Arts from 1918 to 1921 and at the German Bauhaus from 1922 to 1933. During this time, he also exhibited internationally and earned a reputation in the United States and with Solomon Guggenheim.

By 1933, political pressures forced Kandinsky to leave Germany. He moved to Paris where he continued to paint until his death in 1944. In his later years, Kandinsky's painting style became softer, subtler, and more organic. This can be seen in the painting Dominant Curve (1936). The biomorphic art of this time period attested to his interest in the organic sciences. These works of Wassily Kandinsky's later years are also described as indicative of his optimism for regeneration in postwar Europe.

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