WASSILY KANDINSKY (1866-1944) Attrib, Title: Untitled, Medium: Watercolor on paper, Size: 10 x 8.75 in, Date: ca 1913-20. CAV. Was a Russian artist whose vibrant abstract paintings pioneered Non-Objective Art. Kandinsky often discussed painting in musical terms, with several of his most famous works titled using the terminology, including Improvisation 28 (1912) and Composition VII (1913). “Color directly influences the soul. Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings,” he stated in his book Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911). Born on December 4, 1866 in Moscow, Russia, as a youth he studied music and drawing but pursued a career in law as a young man. It was not until 1896, that the 30 year old Kandinsky moved to Munich to study painting. While in Germany, he forged relationships with the painters Franz Marc with whom he formed the Der Blaue Reiter group, August Macke, Paul Klee, Alexej von Jawlensky, as well as his lover and companion Gabriele Münter. After fleeing Germany for Switzerland during World War I, Kandinsky fell under the influence of the Suprematist painter Kazimir Malevich’s nonrepresentational style. Kandinsky would go on to teach at Walter Gropius’s new school the Weimar Bauhaus from 1921 until 1933 when the Nazi’s closed it down. The artist died on December 13, 1944 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Posthumously, his work had a significant influence on the fledgling Abstract Expressionist movement, especially the painters Jackson Pollock and Arshile Gorky. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Albertina in Vienna

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