The Painter Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was an influential Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting one of the first purely abstract works. He was born on the 16 December 1866 in Moscow, Russian Empire and died on the 13 December 1944 (aged 77) in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. His famous artworks were Composition VI, Composition VII, On White II and Contrasting Sounds. Wassily grew up in the Russian city of Odessa where he enjoyed music and learned to play the piano and the cello. Kandinsky would remark later that, even as a child, the colors of nature dazzled him. Both music and colors would have a huge impact on his art later in life. Kandinsky was quite focused on shapes and colours in his artwork. While refining his art and ideas over the next several years, Kandinsky took on different positions and moved around some. From 1914 to 1921 he returned to Russia. During this time he married his wife Nina. When his art was rejected in Russia he moved back to Germany to teach at an art school called the Bauhaus. He left Germany in 1934 because of the Nazis and moved to Paris where he lived until his death in 1944.