Vyacheslav Savosin (1938–2014) was a Soviet and Russian painter and graphic artist known for his linocut portraits, Moscow cityscapes and paintings that combined a graphic approach with everyday urban subjects. He worked across painting and printmaking and developed a distinctive three- and four-colour linocut technique.

Savosin was born in Moscow on January 14, 1938, and lived on Tverskoy Boulevard. In 1960 he graduated from the Art and Graphic Department of the Lenin Moscow State Pedagogical Institute and began working at the Graphic Art Combine of the Moscow Union of Artists. He became a member of the Moscow branch of the Union of Artists of the USSR in 1964 and was later awarded the title Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation.

Savosin began his artistic career in the 1960s, during the revival of linocut in Soviet graphic art. His prints were characterised by simple compositions, monumental forms and an interest in contemporary graphic expression. He created portraits of writers and artists including Hemingway, Alexander Blok, Vladimir Mayakovsky and Eduard Bagritsky. His portraits of Mayakovsky and Bagritsky, both made in 1963, received Moscow Union of Artists prizes as the best works of the year. He subsequently developed a three- and four-colour linocut technique, using it for portraits of Aivazovsky, Gogol, Yesenin, Akhmatova, Surikov, Levitan and Dostoevsky.

Although Savosin also painted throughout his career, he first exhibited his paintings publicly in 1987. His later work included Moscow cityscapes and scenes of everyday life, depicting the city in different moods and seasons. He was part of the Moscow artistic circle of the 1960s and maintained friendships with figures including Vladimir Vysotsky, Levon Kocheryan, Vladimir Akimov and Mikhail Tumanishvili. He participated in more than 150 group and solo exhibitions in the Soviet Union and abroad, including exhibitions in Australia, Germany, France, Austria, Finland and Japan.

Savosin's works are held in the Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and other Russian museums, as well as museums and private collections in Europe, the United States, Cuba, South Korea and elsewhere. He also published a collection of poetry, Poetic Reflections of an Artist, in 2003. He died in Moscow on October 2, 2014, aged 76, and was buried at Vostryakovskoye Cemetery.

Vyacheslav Ivanovich Savosin