David Černý (born 15 December 1967) is a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

. His works can be mainly seen in many locations in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Early life

Černý was born in

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. From 1988 to 1994 he studied at the Kurt Gebauer Studio at the

Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague The Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (AAAD, cs, Vysoká škola uměleckoprůmyslová v Praze, abbreviated VŠUP, also known as UMPRUM) is a public university located in Prague, Czech Republic. The university offers the study ...

and in 1995 and 1996 he participated in the

Whitney Museum The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

Independent Study Program, New York, US. In 1994-1995 he took the PSI artists residence, New York, US and in 1996 he received the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant. In 1991 he took a Residency of the Swiss Government in

Boswil Boswil is a municipality in the district of Muri in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. The village lies in the Bünztal valley at the foot of the Lindenberg mountain. The hamlet Wissenbach and Sentenhof (a former estate of the Benedictine ...

, Switzerland

Career

He gained notoriety in 1991 by painting a Soviet tank pink, to serve as a war memorial in central Prague. As the

Monument to Soviet Tank Crews The Monument to Soviet Tank Crews (Czech: ''Památník sovětských tankistů'') was a World War II memorial located in Prague. It is also known as the Pink Tank because it was controversially painted pink in 1991, first by installation artist D ...

was a national cultural monument at that time, his act of

civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". H ...

was considered vandalism and he was briefly arrested. Another of Černý's conspicuous contributions to Prague is "Tower Babies" (2000), a series of cast figures of crawling infants attached to

Žižkov Television Tower The Žižkov Television Tower ( cs, Žižkovský vysílač) is a unique transmitter tower built in Prague between 1985 and 1992. Designed by the architect Václav Aulický and the structural engineer Jiří Kozák, it stands high above the city's ...

. In 2005, Černý created Shark, an image of

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...

in a tank of

formaldehyde Formaldehyde ( , ) ( systematic name methanal) is a naturally occurring organic compound with the formula and structure . The pure compound is a pungent, colourless gas that polymerises spontaneously into paraformaldehyde (refer to section ...

. The work was presented at the second

Prague Biennale The Prague Biennale is an international art exhibition in Prague, Czech Republic, held in alternate (odd-numbered) years. It was founded in 2003 by Helena Kontova and Giancarlo Politi. It is supported by the Czech Minister of Culture and the City o ...

that same year. The work is a direct parody of a 1991 work by

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingd ...

, '' The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living''. In 2006, the work was banned in Middelkerke,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

, in

Bielsko-Biała Bielsko-Biała (; cs, Bílsko-Bělá, german: Bielitz-Biala, szl, Bjylsko-Bjoło) is a city in southern Poland, with a population of approximately 168,319 as of December 2021, making it the 22nd largest city in Poland, and an area of . It is a ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, and also in the German town of

Büdelsdorf Büdelsdorf ( da, Bydelstorp) is a town in the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the river Eider and the Kiel Canal, approx. north of Rendsburg, and west of Kiel, just off the motorway. Hi ...

. With respect to the Belgian situation, the mayor of that town, Michel Landuyt, admitted that he was worried that the exhibit could "shock people, including Muslims" in a year already marred by tensions associated with Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. The Deputy Mayor of

, Zbigniew Michniowski, contacted the city-funded gallery,

galeria BWA Galeria Bielska BWA is a municipal art gallery of Bielsko-Biała, Poland, dedicated to the contemporary art. It carries out exhibition, publishing, documentary and educational activities. It is the organiser of the Painting Biennale Bielsko Aut ...

on 9 September 2006 and threatened dire consequences if the artwork were not removed promptly. In response, Shark was transported to the Szara gallery, in the nearby town of

Cieszyn Cieszyn ( , ; cs, Těšín ; german: Teschen; la, Tessin; szl, Ćeszyn) is a border town in southern Poland on the east bank of the Olza River, and the administrative seat of Cieszyn County, Silesian Voivodeship. The town has 33,500 inhabitan ...

. The mayor of Cieszyn, Bogdan Ficek, distanced himself from Bielsko-Biała City Hall's values. "I can not see any reason a politician should censor art," Ficek said. His statue ''

METALmorphosis ''METALmorphosis'' is a large (7 meters; weighing 13 tons) kinetic sculpture of a human head, by Czech artist David Černý. The sculpture is in the Whitehall Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, where it was inaugurated in 2007, and it ...

'' is on display in Charlotte, North Carolina. Černý created a similar outdoor sculpture in 2014 in Prague, called

Head of Franz Kafka The ''Head of Franz Kafka'' ( cz, Hlava Franze Kafky), also known as the ''Statue of Kafka'', is an outdoor sculpture by David Černý David Černý (born 15 December 1967) is a Czech sculptor. His works can be mainly seen in many locations ...

. His Entropa, created to mark the Czech presidency of the European Union Council during the first half of 2009, attracted controversy both for its stereotyped depictions of the various EU member states, and because it turned out to have been created by Černý and two friends rather than, as promised, being a collaboration between artists from each of the member states. Some EU member states reacted negatively to the depiction of their country. For instance, Bulgaria decided to summon the Czech Ambassador to Sofia in order to discuss the illustration of the Balkan country as a collection of squat toilets. Meanwhile, the Bulgarian permanent representative to the EU allegedly said "It is a humiliation for the Bulgarian nation and an offense to our national dignity.” For

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, th ...

Černý created "

London Booster ''London Booster'' is an art installation by Czech artist David Černý. It's a bus fitted with hydraulic arms, allowing it to do push ups, accompanied by audio-visual effects. It was created to celebrate the 2012 Summer Olympics and inspire the ...

" – a double decker bus with mechanical arms for doing push-ups.

Awards

In 2000, Černý won the Jindřich Chalupecký Award.

Gallery

File:David Cerny Upside Down Dead Horse Prague 26.06.2015 9951.jpg, St. Wenceslas riding a dead horse. ''Cf.'' this statue by Josef Václav Myslbek. File:David Cerny Golem Poznan 16.01.2012 4596.jpg, ''Golem##, Poznań. File:Cerný hanging statue.JPG, Statue of

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...

hanging by one hand. File:Miminka Davida Černého.jpg, A tower baby File:CernýPeeingStatues.jpg, ''

Piss Piss is a profanity, swear word. Piss(es) or pissing may refer to: * Urine, a liquid by-product of the body that is secreted by the kidneys and excreted through the urethra ** Urination, the ejection of urine to the outside of the body * ''Piss' ...

'' (2004), Prague File:Liberec.Busshelter.JPG, ''Feast of Giants'', a bus stop in

Liberec Liberec (; german: Reichenberg ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants and it is the fifth-largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well prese ...

File:London Booster.jpg, ''

'' in front of Czech House in London File:Gesto, David Černý(sochař), 21.10.2013, Praha.jpg, ''Gesture'', Prague File:Metalmorphosis sculpture in Charlotte, NC, USA.jpg, ''Metalmorphosis'',

Charlotte, NC Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populou ...

, US

References

External links