Jean RUSTIN (1928-2013)

Heads, 1975. Oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right. 27 x 41 cm. Jean RUSTIN is a French painter, trained at the Beaux-Arts of Paris. At the beginning, he practiced figurative watercolor, before finding the style that marks his work: lyrical abstraction, which he practiced from 1947. On the technical level, he gradually abandoned oil for acrylic. In 1971, the ARC devoted a retrospective to him. It was at this time that he began to paint the human figure, taking on a psychiatric dimension, which shocked the public. Our painting is the result. Severed heads reminds us of the works of Lucian Freud, with a dark universe, close to madness. These heads on the ground challenge, shock and question the meaning of the work and the purpose sought by the artist. These mysterious severed heads take the collector back to the great artistic myths, such as Judith and Holofernes or Salome and John the Baptist. Can you solve the enigma?