Wassily Kandinsky (Russian Василий Васильевич Кандинский/Wassili Wassiljewitsch Kandinski, botanical transliteration Vasilij Vasilij Kandinski). transliteration Vasilij Vasil'evič Kandinskij; * 4 Decemberjul./ 16 December 1866 greg. in Moscow; † 13 December 1944 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) was a Russian painter, graphic artist and art theorist who also lived and worked in Germany and France. With Franz Marc, he was the founder of the editorial group "Der Blaue Reiter," which opened its first exhibition in Munich on December 18, 1911. Der Blaue Reiter emerged from the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (New Munich Artists' Association), founded in 1909, of which he was for a time chairman. During the Weimar Republic, he was a teacher at the Bauhaus.
Kandinsky was an Expressionist artist and one of the pioneers of abstract art. He is often credited by his own account as the creator of the world's first abstract painting, but this may be predated by giving the year 1910 instead of 1913. Recent research points to the fact that in 1907 the painter Hilma af Klint had already created an abstract painting with "The Ten Greatest, No. 2, Childhood, Group IV, 1907."
Wassily Kandinsky is best known for his bold, abstract paintings which celebrate colour and form.
Although inspired by music, colour and the creative artistic movements developing during that time, Kandinsky took up painting much later in life and his early works included a number of landscapes and outdoor scenes, but even then his love of colour and exquisite use of tone and hue were prevalent.
Renowned artists such as Cezanne, Gauguin and Matisse were all painting at this time and revolutionising art with the introduction of impressionism in a variety of forms.
Many of the Impressionists shunned the use of black, instead creating depth of form and shadow by combining or applying darker hues together. Kandinsky had seen the development of pointillism as well as the cubism movement and there are elements of these influences in many of his works.