From time to time, artists whose main creative energies are devoted to other areas of graphic art—drawing, watercolor, the genre of book illustration—have made their mark in printmaking.
In the early 1960s, Roman Beniaminovich Nudel began working in printmaking ("Poppies," color lithograph, 1960; "At the Intersection," 1961, etching, aquatint), later developing as a watercolorist and draftsman. In the 1980s, he experienced a renewed interest in printmaking. Using the technique of color linocut, he created the triptych "Construction of the First Five-Year Plan" ("Building Intergelpo," "Construction of the Frunze-Bystrovka Railway," "Kant Sugar Factory is Being Built," 1984). The expressive sheets, notable for their compositional structure and color, convincingly recreate the atmosphere of the historical period and the labor enthusiasm of the people.
A series of expressive prints was created by Vasily Savelievich Gladkov, who was more active as a book artist. Among his successes is the autolithograph "Memory. Over the Belaya" (1972). In this completed graphic composition, a vivid image of Bashkortostan is created with a wide panorama of the Belaya River and forest expanses. The rich painterly possibilities of lithographic technique are finely utilized here, showcasing its ability to create a spatial environment. The image is particularly uplifted by a flying flock of swans, depicted in close-up, giving a sense of flight and fresh wind.
The creative success of Vladimir Grigoryevich Rogachev is a series of autolithographs based on the novella by Ch. Aitmatov "The Mother’s Field" (1966-1967). In the sheets of the series "Childhood," "Despair," "Joy" ("Rain"), the deep characters of Aitmatov's heroines, the drama of human destinies, and the tense atmosphere of life during the war years are palpable. The composition "Joy" ("Rain") is especially expressive, where the artist managed to convey the beneficial, "healing" effect of the forces of nature on a person. Joy, life, purification—such associations are evoked by the image of a young Kyrgyz woman standing in the downpour, turning her face and palms towards the streams of rain, as if carrying away the bitterness accumulated in her soul. Here, the scale and cut of the realistic depiction of the figure in relation to the conventionally taken background are well guessed, with a concise and expressive tonal solution. The soft, complex texture of the stone is densely laid on the paper. The gradations of black, white, and gray colors are finely considered. Rogachev acts here both as a thoughtful interpreter of Ch. Aitmatov's images in the field of visual arts and as an artist who thinks independently, feeling the specificity of the graphic material.
