Jean Rustin

Jean Rustin (3 March 1928 – 24 December 2013) was a French painter and prominent figurative artist.

At the age of 19 he moved to Paris where he studied at the School of Fine Arts, in the studio of Untersteller.

He created a bizarre world of human figures, where an existential dead-end is transformed into fright, abhorrence, pity but also relief.

The artist stated that....."I realize that behind my artistic creation, behind the fascination for the naked body, there are twenty centuries of painting, primarily religious, twenty centuries of dead Christs, tortured martyrs, gory revolutions, massacres and shattered dreams [...] I realize that history and maybe art history are engraved on the body and flesh of men....."[citation needed] The work of Rustin is relatively unknown.

However, while most European and American artists were widening the gap between themselves and the figurative traditions that preceded Modernism, Rustin started to swim against the current, a decision which cost him dearly in the short term.