The art of Soviet Socialist Realism is a subject that even the most seasoned collectors and art historians are likely to be unfamiliar with. Dating from approximately the mid-1920s through the mid-1970s, this art was essentially unknown outside the Soviet sphere until the recent lifting of political and economic barriers between the former Soviet Union and the West. Given the opportunity to now examine these works, some readers may be put off by the mere appellation "Socialist Realism." It conjures up visions of a stiff and moribund art that glorified the state, to the exclusion of personal style or preferences. A careful look at the images in this exhibition, however, will certainly challenge such assumptions. Only within the past several years a handful of art historians have begun to unearth the basic facts concerning the political and social conditions that influenced artists of the Soviet Union after the Revolution…