Wassily Kandinsky

by Michael H.

Wassily Kandinsky 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. Kandinsky was born in Moscow but spent his childhood in Odessa. He enrolled at the University of Moscow and chose law and economics. Although 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. He went back to Moscow in 1918 after the Russian Revolution. Kandinsky's work was shown in galleries across Europe, and while there was never anything in the paintings themselves that would be shocking to the public, the sheer abstract nature of his work would stir controversy. One could say Kandinsky gave birth to abstract art. Being in conflict with official theories on art, he returned to Germany in 1921. There he was a teacher at the Bauhaus from 1922 until it was closed by the Nazis in 1933. At that time he moved to France where he lived the rest of his life, becoming a French citizen in 1939. He died at Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1944. That is the life story of Wassily Kandinsky