Wassily Kandinsky was born in Russia on December 16, 1866. He did not begin his artistic career until he was already thirty years old. His early work were landscapes and still lives depicted mostly realistically. Slowly he began to break down the shapes in his paintings, abstracting and flattening them more and more until he finally departed completely from using conventional forms in his work. Instead he chose to focus on the use of line, figure and ground, form, and color to convey to the viewer feelings and emotions. Kandinsky was also greatly interested in conveying music in his work, which is why his pieces are often numbered compositions. He is the first artist to really push abstract art as a legitimate art form.
