Wassily Kandinsky
Kandinsky was thirty years old, a qualified lawyer with a professorship waiting for him in Estonia, when he went to an exhibition in Moscow and saw Monet's Haystacks. The following year he attended a performance of Wagner's Lohengrin at the Bolshoi Theatre and wrote afterwards: I saw all my colours in spirit, before my eyes. Wild, almost crazy lines were sketched in front of me. He left for Munich to study painting in December 1896[8]. He never practised law again.
Biography
The connection between colour and sound was not metaphorical for him. Kandinsky experienced synesthesia: he heard colours and saw sounds. He assigned specific correspondences, yellow being middle C on a brassy trumpet, black being closure and the end of things. He believed that combinations of colours produced vibrational frequencies like piano chords. His uncle Victor had described similar experiences, suggesting a family trait.
He founded the Phalanx School in Munich in 1902[8], admitting women from the start, which was notably progressive. Among his students was Gabriele Munter, who became his partner. In 1911, after Composition V was refused exhibition, he and Franz Marc founded Der Blaue Reiter. That same year he published Concerning the Spiritual in Art, the first systematic theoretical framework for abstract painting.
The making of Composition VI is instructive. After nearly six months of preparation, he became completely blocked. Munter told him he was trapped in his intellect and suggested he repeat the word uberflut (deluge) as a mantra. He completed the monumental canvas in three days.
In 1913[8] he built a six-storey apartment building in Moscow overlooking Zubovskaya Square. After the Bolshevik Revolution, the state confiscated everything. He taught at the Bauhaus from 1922 until the Nazis forced its closure in 1933. Marcel Duchamp, who had bought his Improvisation 27 at the 1913 Armory Show, suggested the apartment in Neuilly-sur-Seine where Kandinsky spent his last decade. He never visited America despite multiple invitations, including one from Josef Albers at Black Mountain College. He died in Paris in 1944[8].
Timeline
- 1866Born on 16 December in Moscow, Russia, into a prosperous family of tea merchants.
- 1896At 30, abandoned a promising career in law and economics in Moscow to study painting at the Munich Academy in Germany.
- 1910At 44, produced what is considered the first purely abstract watercolour in Munich, breaking decisively with representational art.
- 1911At 45, co-founded the Der Blaue Reiter group in Munich with Franz Marc, uniting Expressionist artists across Europe.
- 1912At 46, published Concerning the Spiritual in Art in Munich, a treatise arguing that art should express inner emotional and spiritual states.
- 1922At 56, joined the Bauhaus faculty in Weimar, Germany, teaching colour theory and analytical drawing for the next eleven years.
- 1933At 67, fled to Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris after the Nazis closed the Bauhaus in Berlin, and never returned to Germany.
- 1944Died aged 77 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, having become a French citizen in 1939 during his final prolific decade of painting.
Notable Works
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Where to See Wassily Kandinsky
18 museums worldwide.
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52 worksNational Gallery of Art
Washington D.C., United States
Mon–Sat 10:00–17:00, Sun 11:00–18:00 · Free
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26 worksMuseum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Main building closed for renovation until 2029; Depot open Tue–Sun 11:00–17:00 · Depot €20 adults
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8 worksMuseum of Modern Art
New York City, United States
Daily 10:30–17:30 (Sat until 19:00; first Fri of month until 20:00) · Adults $30, students $17
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Wassily Kandinsky prints
Hand-finished archival prints from Wassily Kandinsky's body of work.
Dull Gray - Wassily Kandinsky
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Untitled (Abstraction - Ball and Diagonal) - Wassily Kandinsky
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Clouds, from the portfolio Xylographies - Wassily Kandinsky
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Birds, from the portfolio Xylographies - Wassily Kandinsky
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Shawm, from the portfolio Xylographies - Wassily Kandinsky
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Women in the Woods - Wassily Kandinsky
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See all Wassily Kandinsky prints →Frequently Asked Questions
Did wassily kandinsky have synesthesia?
The connection between colour and sound was not metaphorical for Wassily Kandinsky, as he experienced synesthesia: he heard colours and saw sounds. He assigned specific correspondences, such as yellow being middle C on a brassy trumpet, and black being closure.How did wassily kandinsky become an artist?
As a child, Wassily Kandinsky loved to paint, and the effects of colours on him were deep. He acknowledged his long-standing fascination with painting by refusing a professorship of law in 1896[8] and leaving for a full-time study of art in Munich.Is wassily kandinsky famous?
Wassily Kandinsky is known as a pioneer of abstract art, and he explored the effects of colour through paint. He was a leader of new ideas, and his art changed from figurative paintings.Is wassily kandinsky still alive?
No, Wassily Kandinsky died in 1944[8].Wassily kandinsky art style for kids?
One day, Wassily Kandinsky saw one of his paintings on its side, and he liked how it looked like a jumble of shapes, lines, and colours. This inspired him to start making abstract paintings all the time, rather than pictures of things we recognise.Was wassily kandinsky a christian?
According to reports from his relatives and friends, Wassily Kandinsky was a practicing member of the Russian[8] Orthodox Church and an avid collector of old icons. Photographs of his Munich apartment and his house in Murnau show many Christian images; for example, a photograph from 1911[8] shows him sitting at his desk in his Munich apartment at 36 Ainmillerstraße.Was wassily kandinsky a good person?
According to Nina Kandinsky, Wassily Kandinsky charmed all who met him with his manners, dignity, and natural elegance. He was called "The Prince" by his circle of friends, and there was nothing brusque about him.What materials did wassily kandinsky use?
Kandinsky painted with oil on canvas, cardboard, or wood, and with tempera on coloured paper. He also used gouache and oil on board, oil and sand on canvas, and oil on glass; throughout his career, he painted watercolours with crisp, bold brushstrokes of translucent colour over pencil or ink, flowing wet washes, or fine particles of sprayed pigment obscuring the paper.When did wassily kandinsky die?
Wassily Kandinsky died in 1944[8] at the age of 78.When did wassily kandinsky start painting?
During the first decades of the twentieth century, painting moved towards abstraction. The sources of such shifts in the history of art can be traced to the originality and determination of individuals such as Wassily Kandinsky.Who was wassily kandinsky influenced by?
Wassily Kandinsky was inspired by the approaches to light and colour taken by Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet. He also believed that art can be a manifestation of spirituality, so he created abstract paintings, lithographs, and wood engravings.Why did wassily kandinsky make abstract art?
Kandinsky's theories are based on the principle of "inner necessity", which he defines as the guiding principle in all realms of spiritual.
Sources
Editorial draws on the following primary and tertiary references for Wassily Kandinsky.
- [1] museum Buffalo AKG Art Museum Used for: museum holdings.
- [2] museum San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Used for: museum holdings.
- [3] museum Van Abbemuseum Used for: museum holdings.
- [4] museum Sprengel Museum Used for: museum holdings.
- [5] museum Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam Used for: museum holdings.
- [6] museum National Museum of Fine Arts, Argentina Used for: museum holdings.
- [7] wikidata Wikidata: Q61064 Used for: identifiers.
- [8] wikipedia Wikipedia: Wassily Kandinsky Used for: biography, birth dates, death dates, identifiers, movement attribution, nationality.
- [9] book ajay, 38774.indb Used for: biography.
- [10] book Susie Hodge, Art Used for: biography, stylistic analysis.
- [11] book Susie Hodge, Artistic Circles Used for: biography.
- [12] book Susie Hodge, Artists and Their Pets Used for: biography, stylistic analysis.
- [13] book Susie Hodge, ArtQuake Used for: biography.
- [14] book Susie Hodge, ArtQuake: The Most Disruptive Works in Modern Art Used for: biography.
- [15] book guggenheim-guggenh01solo Used for: biography.
- [16] book guggenheim-guhe00solo Used for: biography.
- [17] book guggenheim-kandinskyinparis00barn Used for: biography.
- [18] book guggenheim-memorialexhibiti00reba Used for: biography.
- [19] book guggenheim-vangoghexpressio00gogh Used for: biography.
- [20] book guggenheim-vasilykandinsky100solo Used for: biography.
- [21] book Kandinsky Watercolors Used for: biography.
- [22] book Barasch, Moshe; , Modern Theories of Art 2 Used for: biography.
- [23] book Wassily Kandinsky, Point and Line to Plane Used for: biography.
- [24] book Maria Taroutina, The Icon and the Square Used for: biography.
- [25] book Charlene Spretnak (auth.), The Spiritual Dynamic in Modern Art _ Art History Reconsidered, 1800 to the Present Used for: biography.
- [26] book Piotr Barsony, The Stories of the Mona Lisa Used for: stylistic analysis.
Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-07-15. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.
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