Vassily Kandinsky by Adolf Elnain Photo credits : Georges Meguerditchian - Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI /Dist. RMN-GP Image reference : 4N55985
Wassily Kandinsky
PainterKnown for:
the first abstract paintings; Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911)
Education:
University of Moscow (law and economics, 1892); Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (under Franz von Stuck, 1900)
Wassily Kandinsky is generally credited as the painter who produced the first fully abstract work - a 1910 watercolor with no recognizable subject - and spent the following three decades developing a theory of the correspondence between color, form, and musical experience. He taught at the Bauhaus alongside Paul Klee and produced his most systematic paintings there, including the Compositions series. He also wrote Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911), the most influential theoretical text on abstract painting.
Wassily Kandinsky's Gear List(1)
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Worked across oil, watercolor, gouache, and tempera on diverse supports; used Ripolin enamel house paint mixed with tube paints in his Paris period
Product description
Oil paint — pigment suspended in a drying oil, typically linseed — has been the dominant painting medium since the fifteenth century. It dries slowly, allowing extended blending, and produces a rich, luminous surface. Available from dozens of manufacturers at student through professional grades.
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Last updated March 20, 2026
