Wassily Kandinsky Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Born in Moscow on December 4, 1866, into the family of a tea merchant. When his parents separate, his aunt takes care of his education. Read the full biography

Wassily Kandinsky Biography

Born in Moscow on December 4, 1866, into the family of a tea merchant. When his parents separate, his aunt takes care of his education. Already at the age of ten he took his first drawing and music lessons. After studying law, he decided to dedicate himself to painting. At the age of thirty, he moved to Munich, where he attended the academy. From 1901 to 1904 he was part of the artistic group "Phalanx". In the following years, he travels and resides abroad: he also spends a year in Paris. The years 1911 and 1912 are fundamental in the life and artistic evolution of Wassily Kandinsky. He meets the artistic personalities most in tune with his vision of art: Franz Marc and Paul Klee. Together with them he founded the almanac "Der Blaue Reiter", which means "The Blue Knight", a symbolic figure of freedom and spirituality, and blue is the prevailing color in the group's works. The first issue of this newspaper came out in 1912, and on the cover there is a reproduction of a watercolor by Kandinsky, which depicts a slightly stylized blue knight. Around 1912 he began his evolution towards abstraction, with the creation of the first abstract watercolor (1910 or 1913). In the years 1911-14 Kandinsky created many of the first Kompositions (Compositions) and Improvisations (Improvisations). In 1914, at the outbreak of the First World War, Kandinsky returned to Russia. Here he was appointed professor of the State Artistic Laboratories (1918). The works of the period show an increasingly geometric and less expressionist style. In 1921 he returned to Germany with his second wife Nina. He was called to the famous German school of modern design, the Bauhaus. Teaching at the Bauhaus is one of the key experiences in the artist's life. Kandinsky spent more than ten years there. His friend Paul Klee also teaches alongside him. At the Bauhaus Wassily Kandinsky holds the seminar on color as part of the preparatory course. He also teaches mural painting. During teaching, his painting takes on a geometric imprint, dominated by the dynamic properties of the line, the point, the surfaces and the different colors. With the advent of Nazism the Bauhaus was closed. Kandinsky's works, present in abundance in German museums, were seized. But Kandinsky had already left Germany in 1933, to move to Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris. Here he spent the last 10 years of his life peacefully. Wassily Kandinsky died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1944.