Wassily Kandinsky, the Russian-born artist and theorist who is known as one of the key figures in abstract art, has been given his own Google Doodle on the site’s homepage in honor of his 148th birthday.

Born 1866 in Moscow, Kandinsky studied law and economics at the University of Moscow. It was when he took a job as a professor at the University of Dorpat near the turn of the century that Kandinsky began painting in earnest.

Most know Kandinsky for his abstract work, but he didn’t start out painting the complex pieces like the ones that serve as inspiration for today’s Google Doodle.

in 1896, Kandinsky made a big career shift and left Moscow for Munich, where he would attempt to enroll in art school. In the decade that followed, Kandinsky’s style would begin to change – as colorful landscapes would give way to abstraction.

In 1921, Walter Gropius asked Kandinsky to come to his Bauhaus school – an offer Kandinsky accepted. There, he taught classes, painted, and worked on theory.

When the Bauhaus school was shut down by the Nazis in 1933, Kandinsky moved to Paris. He would later become a French citizen and stay in France until his death in 1944.

Images via Wikimedia Commons (1) (2), Google