Occupation: Artist, Painter

Born: December 16, 1866 in Moscow, Russia

Died: December 13, 1944 in Paris, France

Famous works: Composition VI, Composition VII, On White II, Contrasting Sounds

Style/Period: Expressionism, Abstract Art

Biography:
Where did Wassily Kandinsky grow up?

Wassily Kandinsky was born in Moscow, Russia on December 16, 1866. He grew up in the Russian city of Odessa where he enjoyed music and learned to play the piano and the cello.

Becoming an Artist

Kandinsky went to college and then became a law teacher. However, when he was thirty he decided to change careers and become an artist. He attended art school at Munich, Germany. Early on his art was influenced by painters like Claude Monet as well as music composers and philosophers.

Early Art

Kandinsky's early paintings were landscapes that were heavily influenced by Impressionist artists as well as Pointillism and Fauvism. The most famous of his early works is The Blue Rider which he painted in 1903.

Abstract Expressionism

About 1909 Kandinsky began to think that painting didn't need a particular subject, but that shapes and colors alone could be art. Over the next several years he would start to paint what would become known as Abstract Art. Kandinsky was one of the founding fathers of Abstract Art.

Colors and Shapes

Kandinsky felt that he could express feelings and music through colors and shapes in his paintings. For example, he thought that yellow had the crisp sound of a brass trumpet and that certain colors placed together could harmonize like chords on a piano. The shapes he was most interested in were the circle, triangle, and the square. He thought the triangle would cause aggressive feelings, the square calm feelings, and the circle spiritual feelings.