Wassily Kandinsky (or, in complete Russian, Vasily Vasilyevich Kandinsky), was born in Moscow on December 4^th, 1866 and has been hailed as one of the fathers of abstract art. Kandinsky's parents took much interest in music and so their influence led him to learn to play the piano and cello at an early age. And for this reason music has heavily influenced his paintings, especially the titles of his paintings "Improvisations", "Impressions", and "Compositions." His parents divorced when he was 5 and he lived with his father and aunt in Odessa (Ukraine), first painting in oils at age 13. At the age of 20, he attended the University of Moscow where he studied law and economics and then later taught at the Moscow Faculty of Law. Several years later, he attended a French Impressionist exhibition where Monet's "Haystacks at Giverny" sparked Kandinsky's interest in the impressionist art form. At the age of 30, Kandinsky went Munich to study sketching and anatomy, which provided for his foundation in art. He began writing criticism and color theory in 1904, and separated from his wife to enter exhibitions and travel throughout Europe and Africa with his lover, the talented art student Gabriele Münter. Years later, his abstract art form surpassed that of the impressionist and he became known as the father of "abstract" art. When commenting on his art work, Kandinsky said " ...I applied streaks and blobs of colors onto the canvas with a palette knife and I made them sing with all the intensity I could... "

From 1903 onward, Kandinsky's art was exhibited throughout Europe but caused much controversy among the public and art critics. Kandinsky heavily influenced some of the 20^th century art movements and became co-founder of the Blue Rider or Der Blaue Reiter. The Blue Rider movement was mostly made up of German artists and was the main point in German Expressionism but it also opened the doors for free spirit and originality in painting. Kandinsky's Improvisations became the first "abstract" pictures and allowed for the Blue Rider movement to begin. His first work in this mode was completed in 1910, the year in which he wrote an important theoretical study, Concerning the Spiritual in Art. In this work he examines the psychological effects of color with analogies between music and art. In 1914 Kandinsky returned to Russia where he stayed until 1921. In 1922 he came back to Germany to teach and work at the Bauhaus in Dessau until 1933. At the Bauhaus, Kandinsky had his most productive and prolific time but in 1933, when the German Nazis came to power, all modern art was considered as degenerated art and the Bauhaus was closed. Kandinsky's works were removed from German museums and confiscated. Kandinsky then moved to Neuilly near Paris where he remained and continued painting until his death in December 1944. Overall Kandinsky developed his own style that was expressive and colorful and he helped develop the expressionist form of painting.

Kandinsky developed his idea of the correspondence between a work of art and the viewer, and called it "Klang" (sound or resonance). His famous quote accurately describes his appreciation for both music and art: "Color is the power which directly influences the soul. Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with the strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul." During Kandinsky's period of artistic development, he divided his paintings into three main categories: "Impressions" (which still show some representational elements), "Improvisations" (which convey spontaneous emotional reactions), and "Compositions" (which are his ultimate works of art, and he created them after much preparation thus throughout his life he completed only 10 "Compositions").

The "Compositions" are by far the most famous pieces by Kandinsky as they were his ultimate pieces of artwork. His first three compositions were destroyed during the beginning of World War II, yet the others remain and are considered his best work.

"Composition IV is depicted with various parts of swirling colors and soaring lines. The painting is divided abruptly in the center by two thick, black vertical lines. On the left, a violent motion is expressed through the profusion of sharp, jagged and entangled lines. On the right, all is calm, with sweeping forms and color harmonies (Harden)."

Composition IV