Wassily Kandinsky

Artist Biography
Wasilly Kandinsky was born in Moscow on December 16 1866. In 1871 he and his family moved to Odessa where his father ran a tea factory. There he attended grammar school and learned to play the Cello and Piano.
Although he had an interest in art his parents though he should get a more professional occupation and in 1886 he enrolled in the University of Moscow and studied law and economics. He was very successful, graduated with 6 honors and later became a professor at the Moscow faculty of law. Later in 1893 he was appointed to be the professor of the Department of Law. Although his career was going well he still some interest in art, and later 2 events critically changed his decision to become an artist. The first was when he visited an exhibition of the French Impressionist in Moscow in 1895. The other was when he was shocked by Claude Monet’s painting entitled “Haystacks”. He at first was very confused and later angry saying that he felt that the painter had no right to paint things in a way that made it difficult to recognize. In 1896 after a lot of thought Kandinsky finally made the decision to give up his career to become an artist. He moved to Munich which was considered to be one of the centers of European art and entered Anton Azbe’s private painting school. He then later enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in which he stayed for the next 4 years. Later he enrolled at the Munich Academy of the Arts and studied under the artist Franz Stuck. During this time he created an artist group by the name of Phalnax. It was during this time that he met artist Gabriella Munter. He and Munter grew fond of each other and in 1903 Kandinsky divorced his wife and traveled the next 5 years with Munter. During these 5 years they did many paintings and participated in exhibitions. Kandinsky’s work became very popular over these years. They later returned to Bavaria and settled in a small town by the name of Murnau. During this time he did many paintings...