Linocut played a significant role in the art of Oleg Alekseyevich Pochtenny. He mostly created cityscapes, rural landscapes, and still lifes. Many of his graphic sheets were dedicated to Leningrad, a city he knew, loved, and depicted in his drawings, paintings, and engravings countless times. Most of his Leningrad cityscapes were black and white. However, in some cases when the artist wanted to emphasize the festive nature of the scene, he added color by using watercolors. In his art, Leningrad appeared in various ways — there were festive scenes and images of everyday life, the magnificent ensembles of the city center and the modern suburbs. One thing remained constant — there was always order, harmony, and beauty. The artist considered the surroundings of Leningrad to be a continuation of the city’s beauty, with its monuments, buildings, squares, and embankments. Oleg Pochtenny also had a profound knowledge of Leningrad’s history and unwavering respect for those who created and shaped the beautiful city.
Oleg Pochtenny was a master of linocut. He preferred clear lines and contrasting color palettes. Throughout his career, he created many excellent series of works, including the “14 Landscapes Engraved on Boxwood Slices, Depicting the Nature and Architecture of the Russian North”. In the 1950s, Professor Herman Grimm, an expert in both architecture and graphic art, recognized Oleg Pochtenny as “one of the masters of the St. Petersburg landscape”. His linocuts such as “At the Walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress”, “Bridge at the Peter and Paul Fortress. Skiers”, “At the Narva Triumphal Arch”, and “Festive Fireworks at the Monument to Alexander Suvorov” are characterized by a more generalized and restrained approach. They are distinguished by minimalism and seem to be imbued with the strict style of classic St. Petersburg monuments, buildings, and architectural ensembles.
“The creative process is always enjoyable, and we, printmakers, experience it three times: when we draw, when we engrave, and when we print,” this idea of the famous artist Ilya Alekseyevich Sokolov was shared by Oleg Pochtenny and became his creative credo.
