Large format: the image measures 20" x 27 ½", total size is 23 ½" x 31 ½". The artwork depicts an industrial landscape, the yard of a huge factory where multiple railroad tracks, big machines, and giant massive smokestacks 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. The sparse choice of colors, all on the somber gloomy end of the palette, underscore this mechanized inhuman environment where man is but a sm

Large format: the image measures 20" x 27 ½", total size is 23 ½" x 31 ½". The artwork depicts an industrial landscape, the yard of a huge factory where multiple railroad tracks, big machines, and giant massive smokestacks 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. The sparse choice of colors, all on the somber gloomy end of the palette, underscore this mechanized inhuman environment where man is but a small cog in service of the giant machine. The artist's inscription in pencil under the image on the left reads "OKhMK. Etching, raised print 2/5." The author's handwritten signature and year are under the image on the right, also in pencil.

The lithograph is in excellent condition. All the creases, stains and fingerprints are contained entirely to the margins, and do not reach the imagery. In fact, they serve as an attractive visual testament to the lithograph's authenticity. The paper is thick and sturdy; the lithograph has been stored rolled up for a long time. As seen in the photos, it can be unrolled with due patience and care. However, it will be shipped rolled up, in a sturdy cardboard tube.

Novichenko was among the first to turn upside down the old ideologically worn-out approach of Socialist Realism to the theme of labor heroes where the hero's portrait dominated his tools of labor and the entire environment. Here we see exactly the opposite.

Valentin Novichenko (Валентин Алексеевич Новиченко, 1927-2010) was 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 Combine (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 paintings 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 1-ft. ruler in our photo is for size reference.
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