Measures 11 ¾" x 9 ¼" overall, the image is 8" x 6 ¼". The artwork depicts an industrial landscape, the yard of a huge factory where multiple railroad tracks, big machines, and tall massive smoke stacks completely dwarf humans. Even though they are in the very center of the image, it feels like they do not really belong here, like they are lost and just wander without purpose, without even trying to find a purpose.

This lithograph is an excellent example of Novichenko's continuous search for innovation in graphic art. If you look closely, you will see that the image consists of no

Measures 11 ¾" x 9 ¼" overall, the image is 8" x 6 ¼". The artwork depicts an industrial landscape, the yard of a huge factory where multiple railroad tracks, big machines, and tall massive smoke stacks completely dwarf humans. Even though they are in the very center of the image, it feels like they do not really belong here, like they are lost and just wander without purpose, without even trying to find a purpose.

This lithograph is an excellent example of Novichenko's continuous search for innovation in graphic art. If you look closely, you will see that the image consists of not one, not two, but three superimposed prints from the same block, each in a different color - pink, blue, and brown. It also appears that the green color of the grass was added by hand, separately.

In excellent condition. We won't pretend that we understand the meaning of the two thin parallel lines in the lower part of the image but they are not too intrusive for the eye, and, apparently, the artist did not consider them as detriment since he signed this print. The margins around the image are mostly clean, showing a tiny spot of a stain and just a hint of soiling, to be expected in an original work handled by the artist. The verso is also mostly clean, showing just minor traces of colors which probably rubbed off in storage from another work.

Valentin Novichenko (Валентин Алексеевич Новиченко, 1927-2010) is a well-known master of graphic arts from the Urals. He was born into a working-class family. His childhood impressions of industry and the construction of the Orsk Metallurgical Kombinat (group of factories) deeply affected his art.

He participated in the Patriotic War and then graduated from the Sverdlovsk School of Arts, which he attended from 1956 to 1961. In 1966 he became a member of the Trade Union of Artists of the USSR and a permanent participant of all-Union exhibitions. From 1953 to 1963 he worked as a decorator at the Uralkhimmash and Uralmash, both of which were gigantic powerhouses of Soviet industry that played an extremely important role in the development of the industrial might of the Soviet Union as well as its defense during the Great Patriotic War. They also played a major role in the development of the city of Yekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk) and the entire Urals Region.

After the death of the artist in 2010, a number of his exhibitions opened in his native Urals and in Moscow, and well-known collectors are now trying to acquire his works. As is evident from his correspondence with colleagues that is now kept in a private collection, Novichenko had a difficult personality. He never tried to sell his works to collectors or earn favors from the bureaucrats managing arts; he also refused to sell his painting to the managing committees of exhibitions on their terms. He was a tireless innovator, always in search of new materials and techniques, and this consumed his entire life. His lithographs on metal or so-called "poly-etching graphics" that employed various techniques and metal cutting instruments invented by him, make his art truly unique and of enduring value.

Please note that the pen in our last photo is for size reference.
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