Red art turning to green

Malyy Gorodok, Russia — THE painting exudes the sweet softness of idyllic village life: A mother, towel wrapped around her head, braids her daughter's hair while a young woman draws a red comb through her own tresses. A girl in a dark dress carries a samovar for tea, a little girl drinks from a white cup, and a cat makes its presence known.

Yuri Kugach, 90, still remembers the inspiration for one of his most famous paintings. He was visiting the home of a fisherman when he saw the women of the house making themselves up after a visit to the \o7banya\f7, or Russian-style steam bath.

"I said to myself, 'This is a painting,' " he recalled four decades later.

Today, his works and those of other Soviet painters who produced technically skilled art in the happy-worker style often dubbed Socialist Realism are riding a wave of new popularity. In a development that bygone communist leaders might not have found amusing, wealthy Moscow capitalists are sharply bidding up prices -- as high as $200,000 -- as they scramble to acquire pieces.

Kugach's life as one of the most well-known Soviet artists was cemented more than half a century ago when he moved into the home of a peasant family in this tiny lakeside village surrounded by birch and pine forests 250 miles northwest of Moscow.

He has been based here ever since, doing landscapes, some overtly political works such as paintings glorifying Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, but above all chronicling the life of peasants in a style that emphasized the satisfying aspects of their existence, such as the scene of women and girls after enjoying the \o7banya\f7.

Yuri Tyukhtin, 39, a banker who also runs a gallery specializing in Soviet art, said such paintings were now trendy because "people feel nostalgia for the USSR."

"They forget everything that was bad, and people are homesick for the good things."

Tyukhtin said he liked Socialist Realism "because it's monumental, because it depicts happiness."

"The characters are healthy and enlightened. The art was propaganda of happiness, and the people who were doing it were doing it sincerely."

Today's buyers are members of Russia's emerging upper middle class, who often want paintings to decorate their urban apartments and countryside dachas, or collectors among the country's new super-rich who see art as an investment and a hobby.