David ČERNÝ
BABY
2 Rynek Street / the corner of Olejna Street
wall installation
David Černý – born in 1967 in Prague. One of the most recognisable European artists working in public space. Studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Prague. A court sculptor of the Czech capital, his works have become a real showpiece of the city and a tourist attraction filled with Czech humour. The artist became known to the general public in 1990 with his sculpture ‘Quo vadis’ – a Trabant on human legs is a reference to the time when masses of immigrants poured into Prague from the GDR, asking for asylum in the Czech Republic. Abandoned Trabants were left in their wake on the streets and became a symbol of that time. Today, a copy of this 3-metre-long work can be seen at the German Embassy in Prague. In 1991, Černý caused his first political scandal by painting a Soviet tank standing in the Smichov district pink. Due to the fact that the tank was part of a Soviet monument, the artist was arrested for his act on charges of ‘civil disobedience’. The following years brought Černy a reputation as a provocative artist and critical acclaim. Among David Černý’s best-known works are ‘The Horse’, ‘Babies’ and ‘Franz Kafka’. The first depicts a sculpture of Saint Wenceslas (the patron saint of the Czech Republic) sitting on a dead, upturned horse in Lucerne, Prague, a direct parody of Prague’s most famous monument by Josef Václav Myslbeek, located on Wenceslas Square. Another sculpture consists of figures of children climbing the Žižkov Television Tower. It appeared in Prague in 2000, on the occasion of the Czech capital being declared European City of Culture. Each figure weighs approximately 950 kg. Instead of faces, the children have a hole resembling a coin machine. ‘Franz Kafka’ is 39 tonnes of steel cut into 42 slices. These form the head of one of the most famous Czech writer. The sculpture is movable and the metal slices change position, showing successive facets of Kafka. In 2000, the artist received the Chalupecky Prize, awarded to Czech visual artists.
