Kandinski was one of the most influential Russian artists during the 20th century. He was born in Moscow in 1866 where he stayed for most of his childhood. The first artistic concept he embraced was the piano which he learned from his parents. Music eventually became a major inspiration for him when he created such paints as Improvisations, Impressions, and Compositions. In 1886 he he enrolled at the University of Moscow where he studied law and economics. Eventually, after graduating, he lectured at the Moscow Faculty of Law. At the age of 30 he left Moscow and went to Germany to pursue life drawing, sketching, and anatomy.
This study brought him in the opposite direction; his art became extremely abstract. It was not long before his talent surpassed the constraints of art school and he began exploring his own ideas of painting. He can be quoted saying, "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..." Considered to be the founder of abstract art, his work was shown in Europe from 1903 onwards, and often caused controversy among the public and art critics.
In 1933, he left Germany and settled near Paris. He continued painting almost until his death in June, 1944. His paintings still scatter the globe today, some can even be found in the Guggenhiem Museum of Art. His representation of art shows how unique Russian culture truly is. The Russians have always been well known for being different from the rest of the world, even all the way back during the reign of the tsars. Kandinsky himself portreys the originality that stems from Russian with such paintings as the one above, entitled On White II. It was done on a canvas using oil paints in 1923.
