Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian-born artist, whose contributions to the world of modern art are innumerable. On an artistic level, Kandinsky's maturation process from representational art to abstract art is fascinating. From his earliest work, with an impressionistic flair, to his later work, which was pure abstraction, Kandinsky was an innovator and a genius. He bridged the gap between reality painting of earlier decades and the fantasy escapism of the twentieth century.
Wassily Kandinsky (Vasily Vasilyevich Kandinsky) was born on December 4, 1866 in Moscow. His father was a successful tea merchant and his mother was a teacher. From early on in his life, Kandinsky acquired a love for travel moving to Florence in 1869 then back to Russia in 1871, this time to the smaller town of Odessa (a.k.a. "The Pearl of the Black Sea"). Shortly after returning to Russia, Kandinsiky moved in with his aunt as his parents got divorced and apparently could not care for him any longer. During the early years of Kandinsky's life, he discovered a love for color and shape. Kandinsky cherished the watercolors he received from his aunt, and began painting small pictures as early as age five. He attended high school and took a few art and music classes in addition to the