Dmitry Savastin is a Gagauz graphic artist whose lithographs draw on the legends, folklore and history of the Gagauz people. His work is distinguished by a decorative treatment of the image, fluid lines and subtle transitions between black and white, bringing folkloric characters and stories into a distinctive graphic language.

Born in 1942 in Vulcanesti, Moldavian SSR, Savastin moved with his mother to Baku in 1946 and returned to Moldova in 1959. He graduated from the I. E. Repin Republican Art School in Chisinau in 1965 and from the Ivan Fedorov Lviv Polytechnic Institute in 1981. He became a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR in 1976.

Savastin first exhibited his graphic works in 1970, attracting attention for their distinctive visual language and sympathetic treatment of their subjects. From 1975 he worked exclusively in lithography, using the medium to develop greater spatial depth while retaining the decorative character of the composition. In 1981 he began a continuing series of lithographs based on Gagauz folk legends and traditions, depicting figures including the courageous Tudorka, the resourceful Mitirash-Pytirash and the gentle Mari-Kyz.

In 1983, Savastin founded the Children's Art School in Comrat, where he served as director until 1993. In 1994 he was appointed head of culture of the then-unrecognised Gagauz Republic. The following year he travelled to Turkey at the invitation of the Turkish consul in Moldova and worked as an artist at the Istanbul Museum. He continued to participate in exhibitions in Moldova and abroad.

In 2003, Savastin participated in the TÜRKSOY International Symposium of the Turkic World on Fine Arts, and the Children's Art School in Comrat was named after him. The Turkish Ministry of Culture published an album of his work in 2004. In 2012 he was made an honorary citizen of Gagauzia. He lives and works in Comrat, Moldova.

Dmitry Ivanovich Savastin