One of my favorite artists Wassily Kandinky had his 146th birthday today. He lives on through his many beautiful and innovative paintings. I discovered this thanks to google.
His early work could be classified as expressionism using bright colors to show the feelings of a landscape. His later work is more abstract.
In fact he is the one that invented abstract. Legend has it that after he had went home his cleaning lady who cleaned his studio accidentally put his painting back on the easle upside down! When Kandinsky returned he found his painting upside down and actually liked it better. This opened his eyes to the notion that a painting could be a work of art with our having any recognizable objects.
In addition to this he was a teacher at the Bauhaus a mecca for art and design in the 20’s and 30’s. Other teachers included Paul Klee.