Valentin
Mikhailovich Yustitsky

(1892, St. Petersburg – 1951, Saratov)

On graduating from the page corps he enrolled in art school Goldblatt. In 1913 – 1914 he took lessons at a private Academy Blanchard in Paris. Participant of exhibitions since 1915 (the Association of artists, "Salon of the Unicorn", "Northern society of artists", "Store"). In 1918 was sent to the Commissar of enlightenment Lunacharskii, in Saratov, to "create a proletarian art." Headed the Studio of painting and drawing at the local Proletkult was a Professor of Free state art workshops.

Inspired by the "dynamic architecture", participated in a competition to design a rolling monument to the Victims of the Revolution, dreamed of building a moving bridge across the Volga.

In 1929 Usticke is a member of group "13". Since 1936 he lived in Moscow, illustrating books by French writers for the publishing house "Academia". In 1937 was arrested and sentenced for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda" to 9 years in labor camps.

After the liberation in 1946, he returned to Saratov where for a short time, he led the art Studio at the factory. Were dismissed at the initiative of the Saratov artists as "ideological saboteurs" and "unreliable", after which the students left the Studio in a sign of solidarity with the master. The artist's works are in many museums, including the Karakalpak GMI im.And.In.Savitsky. The holder of the greatest number of works of Yustitskogo – UM Saratov named after A. N. Radishcheva. In 2004, this Museum was donated to the picture of Yustitskogo "the Sad Muse", purchased in Paris by the head of the internationally known ensemble "Moscow Virtuosi" Vladimir Spivakov.