One of them, Dmitri Shmarin, a neo-realist painter, said in an interview that he saw no contradiction in artists suing other artists over the content of their work.
"We are not trying to restrict artistic freedom," he said. "Artists, of course, can do whatever they want, but if they insult us, we ask the state to protect us."
He called the works in Russia 2 blasphemous, adding that they were intended to "destabilize the internal peace of our country."
Chahal's triptych, The Sun of Truth, Kindness and Beauty, depicted nearly abstract figures that appeared, crucified, in flames. Kolodobskaya created an iconlike sculpture into which viewers can peek to watch a video, some of it sexually explicit.
A.E.S. -- named for the initials of its artists, Tatiana Arzamasova, Lev Evzovich and Evgeny Svyatsky -- displayed several photographic compositions from its long-running Islamic Project series, which merge images of the Muslim world with landmarks like the Statue of Liberty. The complaint specifically cites Moscow 2006, which depicts a futuristic Kremlin with minarets and other architectural features from the Muslim world.
The artists known as the Blue Noses -- - with "sarcasm and irony," according to the complaint -- contributed a photographic composition showing Pushkin, Putin and an icon of Jesus Christ transposed on a man's naked torso.
A criminal investigation began, but in the spring, prosecutors declined to press charges. The civil case was dismissed on a technicality but was later revived. In addition to the US$175,000 in damages, the complaint asks the courts to prohibit any future display of the works in Russia, from galleries to magazines or other printed media.
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