What is Kandinsky?
{{Infobox Artist | name = Wassily Kandinsky | image = Vassily-Kandinsky.jpeg | nationality = [[Russia]]n; French | field = [[Painting]] | training = [[Academy of Fine Arts, Munich]] | movement = [[Expressionism]]; [[abstract art]] | works = ''On White II'', ''Der Blaue Reiter''}} [[File:Vassily Kandinsky, 1923 - On White II.jpg|thumb|[[On White II]] (1923)]] [[File:Wassily Kandinsky, 1903, The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter), oil on canvas, 52.1 x 54.6 cm, Stiftung Sammlung E.G. Bührle, Zurich.jpg|thumb|[[Wassily Kandinsky]], ''[[The Blue Rider (Kandinsky)|The Blue Rider]]'', 1903 (painting)]] [[File:To the Unknown Voice.JPG|thumb|right|250px|''To the Unknown Voice'', 1916]] '''Wassily Kandinsky''' <ref>Pronounce ''''V'''assily', but German spelling was chosen by him. (Russian: Василий Кандинский)</ref> ({{OldStyleDate|16 December|1866|4 December}} – 13 December 1944) was a [[Russia]]n [[Painting|painter]], [[printmaker]] and art [[theory|theorist]]. He was one of the most important 20th-century artists. He was a major figure in [[modern art]] and painted some of the first modern [[abstract art|abstract]] works.<ref>[[Manierre Dawson]] may have been the first: Ploog, Randy J., Myra Bairstow and Ani Boyajian 2011. ''Manierre Dawson (1887-1969): a catalogue raisonné''. The Three Graces in association with Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York.</ref> ''Der Blaue Reiter'' (The Blue Rider) was a group of artists that was started (1911) in Germany, by Kandinsky and [[Franz Marc]]. ''Der Blaue Reiter'' also became an [[art movement]]. His art changed several times during his life. It was [[Fauvism|fauvist]], abstract, [[Expressionism|expressionist]] and [[Constructivism|constructivist]] in turn. == Life == Born in [[Moscow]], Kandinsky spent his childhood in [[Odesa]]. He enrolled at the [[University of Moscow]] and chose to study [[law]] and [[economics]]. Quite successful in his profession—he was offered a professorship (chair of [[Roman Law]]) at the [[University of