Moscow I, Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Kandinsky started off as a lawyer based on his parents wishes. Even though at an early age he had a skill for drawing. Kandinsky was born in Moscow on December 16th in 1866. He started playing the piano and the cello and began to take drawing lessons. Once leaving high school, Kandinsky went to Law Faculty of Moscow University were he graduated with high honors. Later in his life, his law degree helped him start a company, write books and articles and also teach at many different schools about both art and law.
He married his cousin only a few years later. At the age of thirty he was appointed Professor to the Department of Law in University in Tartu. However, at this time he gave up his successful career and began devoting himself to painting completely.
Throughout all of Kandinsky’s life, he worked hard to find his success. In 1900, he went onto enter Munich Academy of Arts. There he studied with German’s number one graphic artist; Frans Stuck. The master felt that his palette was too bright so Kandinsky followed his guidance and worked with black and white for awhile.
He divorced his wife in 1903 for another artist, Gabriela Munter. The two traveled across Europe and participating in a number of exhibition. During this time Kandinsky created colorful oil paintings such as the very popular Old Town in 1902 and Blue Rider in 1903.
In 1901, Kandinsky admired his active creativity and decided to start an art group called Phalanx. There he started a school that he ended up teaching himself. As he taught and continued to make masterpiece and he began writing for magazines. He had his critical letters published in the magazines The World of Art and also Apollo.
Two years after Kandinsky and Gabriela parted , he married Nina Andreevskaya. During the revolution, he worked on projects that were half abstract and some that were on romantic fantasies. Writing and art were the main part of his life throughout his late years. He wrote and published six articles during 1919 and 1921.
In the years 1923 to 1926 Kandinsky created the abstract painting Composition VIII, Small Dream in Red and Point and Line to Plane. He also began lecturing and holding exhibitions in the USA. Between 1926 and 1933 Kandinsky completed 159 abstract oil paintings and 300 watercolor paintings. Sadly , because Nazis declared artist paintings including Kandinsky paintings to be degenerated they were lost or burned.
In the late part of his life ( 1934 to 1944) he was very isolated because he was painting abstract paintings. It was not recognized at the period or in Paris where he lived in a small apartment. He created in his masterpieces in a studio he had constructed from the previous living room. He used an interesting technique of mixing sand into the paints he used to give his abstract art texture that wasn’t over baring.
In 1939 , during World War 2, he painted Composition X. The colors really stood out in front of the dark black background. He wanted his art to resonate in an observer’s own soul. By the end of his life, late in 1944, Kandinsky had become very isolated. He painted until he died on December 13th 1944. He died from arteriosclerosis.
These days, people assume that he was given prize for his art so quickly because of his higher level of education and his dedication to his vision. His art continues to open a viewers heart and allow them to feel emotions.