Measures 12 x 9 ¼" overall, the image is approx. 8 x 61/4". The artwork depicts a crew of workers surrounded - no, submerged in an assortment of enormous metal constructions, dwarfed by them but at the same time, calmly creating something out of those gigantic metal parts. Curved lines of the metal dominate the space. It seems as if they are slowly rotating, trying to grind the humans between them. It's anybody's guess who is the master of this situation, - the steel or the humans. The lithograph is unsigned but we have several other, signed, lithographs by Novichenko posted on our website. The artist's style is clearly the same.

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 an entirely different dynamic between man and his creation.

The lithograph is in very good condition. The image is pristine. The margin around the image shows minimal soiling, to be expected in an original work handled by the artist, as well as minor edge bumps and small rips, not reaching the artwork. The verso is also clean, showing just minor storage wear.

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.