Wassily Kandinsky

Russian painter and art theorist Wassily Kandinsky is often credited with painting one of the first purely abstract modern works. Kandinsky’s colourful, dynamic works are informed by a uniquely spiritual interpretation of art making. His book Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1910) is regarded as one the most influential art theories of the 20th century. Born in Moscow in 1866, he was raised in Odessa and studied at Grekov Odessa Art School before attending law school. Despite a promising law career, Kandinsky moved to Munich in 1896, at the age of 30, where he enrolled in the Munich Academy to study painting. Before leaving Russia, Kandinsky saw an exhibition of paintings by Monet. He noted with wonder that a painting from the Haystacks series had a powerful sense of colour almost... Show more