Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian artist who helped pioneer abstract art. He was born in Moscow in 1866 and originally pursued a career in law and economics before turning to art in his thirties. Kandinsky's early work was representational, but he began to experiment with abstraction in the early 1910s. His breakthrough came in 1913 with the painting "Composition VII." Throughout his career, Kandinsky continued to explore the possibilities of abstraction, creating works that range from geometric compositions to more organic forms. He believed that art had the power to communicate on a spiritual level and that abstract art was the purest form of visual expression. Kandinsky was also a teacher and played an important role in the development of the Bauhaus. He died in 1944, but his legacy as a pioneer of abstract art and a spiritual thinker continues to be felt today.