Wassily Kandinsky, Russian in full Vasily Vasilyevich Kandinsky, (born December 4 [December 16, New Style], 1866, Moscow, Russia—died December 13, 1944, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France), Russian-born artist, one of the first creators of pure abstraction in modern painting. After successful avant-garde exhibitions, he founded the influential Munich group Der Blaue Reiter (“The Blue Rider”; 1911–14) and began completely abstract painting. His forms evolved from fluid and organic to geometric and, finally, to pictographic (e.g., Tempered Élan, 1944).
