Jean Rustin (3 March 1928 – 24 December 2013) was a French painter and prominent figurative artist.
Biography Rustin was born at Montigny-lès-Metz on 3 March 1928. At the age of 19 he moved to Paris where he studied at the School of Fine Arts, in the studio of Untersteller. During the 1950s he was mainly preoccupied with abstract painting but from the 1970s he embarked on figuration. 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....."
The work of Rustin is relatively unknown. Until the late 1960s, his abstract painting had a large following in France. 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.
Personal exhibits 1959 -1969 : Galerie La Roue, Paris, France 1980-1986 : Galerie Isy Brachot, Paris, France 1986-1993 : Galerie Marnix Neerman, Bruges, Belgium Since 1993 : Rustin Foundation, Antwerp, Belgium 1971 : ARC, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France, Catalogue 1982 : Maison des Arts André Malraux, Créteil, Paris, France, Catalogue 1994 : Städlische Galerie und Ludwig Institut, Schloss Oberhausen, Germany MAC, Sâo Paulo, Brazil Markiezenhof, Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands, Catalogue 1996 The Delfino Studio Trust, London Museum of Contemporary Art, University of São Paulo, Brazil 1997 Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de la Universidade de Chile, Santiago, Chile 2000 Veranneman Foundation, Brussels, Belgium, and Frissiras Museum, Athens, Greece 2001 Halle Saint-Pierre and Galerie Marie Vitoux, Paris, France
Works in public collections Algeria: Musée National des Beaux-Arts, El Hamma Germany: Hamburger Kunsthalle Städtische Galerie et Ludwig Institut, Schloss Oberhausen England: British Museum, London Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham Brazil: Museum of Contemporary Art, University of São Paulo Chile: Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago Spain: Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona USA: Art Museum, Princeton University Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Smithsonian Institution, Washington The New Orleans Museum of Art France: Centre National d'Art Contemporain, Paris Fond Régional d'Art Contemporain de Seine-Saint-Denis Fond Régional d'Art Contemporain, Rhône-Alpes Fond Régional d'Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Monographs Rustin, Entretiens avec Michel Troche, textes de Bernard Noël et Marc Le Bot, Editions de l’Equinoxe, Paris, 1984. Edward Lucie-Smith, Rustin, London, 1991. Agnès Meray, Regards sur l'Œuvre de Jean Rustin, Thèse, Université de Paris I, 1992. Revue Enfers, Jean Rustin, April 1996, textes de Claude Roffat, Pascal Quignard, Agnès Meray, Jean Clair, Françoise Ascal, Edition Pleine Marge, Paris.
References 3. "L'enfant d'Ingolstadt" by author Pascal Quignard, 2018, (in French). Profiles Jean Rustin and reflects on his work. Chapters I, XXXI.