Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian artist. Often considered the father of abstract art, Kandinsky is credited with early forays into abstraction and unique explorations in colour, form, and line. He was born in 1866 in Moscow. His father was a successful businessman who later moved the family to Odessa, where he ran a tea company. Kandinsky showed an early talent for music (piano and cello) as well as drawing. In 1886, intending a career in law, he enrolled at the University of Moscow. Upon graduation in 1893, he was offered a Professor of Law position at a university in Estonia. However, in 1896, he gave up his teaching career to pursue painting full-time. With an early penchant for landscapes rendered in Post-Impressionist style, Kandinsky's later work became increasingly abstract and non-representational, often inspired by music, geometry, and colour theory. His work with the Bauhaus school of art in Germany during the 1920s and early 1930s and his writings about abstract art cemented his reputation as one of the most important artists of the 20th century. Kandinsky's book Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1910) is still readily available.