Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was one of the principal founders of abstract painting, perhaps the most revolutionary development in twentieth-century art. In this book, forty of his major works are reproduced as full-page colorplates. Each has been provided with an accompanying commentary by Thomas M. Messer, Director Emeritus of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, which possesses one of the most comprehensive collections of Kandinsky's art in existence.

Along with his major artistic achievements, Kandinsky's highly original contributions to aesthetic theory are also discussed by Messer, in an extended introductory essay. Kandinsky's critical ideas, developed in the famous Blue Rider Almanac and in his two influential treatises on abstract painting - On the Spiritual in Art and Point and Line to Plane - here provide the reader with intriguing ways to approach his art.

A selection of documentary photographs of Kandinsky and his associates and a number of supplementary artworks reproduced in black-and-white complete the volume.