David Cerny made his name in 1991 by painting a Soviet tank pink (pictured below). As the tank was still a national cultural monument at that time, he was arrested briefly due to 'hooliganism'. David Cerny creates shocking and controversial works that spark wide debate within the community. His works are usually site-specific, large, brash and making political statement. The tank that Cerny painted pink was a memorial to the day that Russian’s ‘liberated’ the Czech Republic in 1945. In 2005 Cerny created the work ‘Shark’, an image of Saddam Hussein in a tank of formaldehyde as a parody of Damien Hirst’s work ‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”. Cerny has created many works in response to current political discourse (or lack of) in contemporary Czech Republic. This approach lends to the cultural framework in art criticism because the notions of time, place and purpose are fundamental in his artworks.
Commentary
“Critics tend to report people’s outrage at Černý’s designs or stress that the artist is rebellious. However, an argument can be made that he is more of a “happening-maker” than a true creator. When an art-maker has the specific intention of shocking the public, he has already made a choice that affects his work. Černý pokes fun at “safe” topics, such as nationalism, Communism and consumerism. He has not totally been ostracized, making him less of a rebel than he at first appears.”
Source: http://www.private-prague-guide.com/article/the-defiant-and-controversial-czech-artist-david-cerny/
ACTIVITY:
Discuss and choose an issue at school that you find controversial and design an artwork that delivers a political message
Source: http://www.private-prague-guide.com/article/the-defiant-and-controversial-czech-artist-david-cerny/
ACTIVITY:
Discuss and choose an issue at school that you find controversial and design an artwork that delivers a political message
Entropa 2009 was a commissioned by the Czech Republic to mark the occasion of its presidency of the Council of the European Union. The sculpture was supposed to have been created jointly by 27 artists and artist groups from all member countries of the EU. However, Černý and his three assistants created the controversial work depicting stereotypes of European nations along with fake artist profiles complete with invented descriptions of their supposed contributions. Cerny and his assistants created caricatures of all European Union countries and with this his work has gained unprecedented attention throughout Europe. This was an artistic depiction of cliches about the various European countries. Not only did this work spark political controversy, but also brought up questions of authorship. Cerny had presented the names and
Commentary
"In the end, one presumes Entropa will be dismantled because the EU requires unanimity on all things. Too many people will decide that they are not quite able to shrug off its irreverence. It will be said that its humour is childish, inappropriate, harsh, or ignorant. What this is likely to mean, though, is that Cerny's project is unacceptable because it is art. You can commission a sculpture or a painting or a mural to mark an occasion or represent some belief or other, but you can't commission a work of art, because art cannot be anything other than ambivalent." (Archer 2009)
ACTIVITY: Consider the commentary above and answer the following questions in short responses:
What political change do you think Cerny anticipated from the Entropa work?
Who is affected by this work?
Who is the audience?
What function do you think this work serves?
Why was this artwork made? Why did the artist choose that material and what social, functional, aesthetic, or symbolic needs did they serve?
ACTIVITY: Consider the commentary above and answer the following questions in short responses:
What political change do you think Cerny anticipated from the Entropa work?
Who is affected by this work?
Who is the audience?
What function do you think this work serves?
Why was this artwork made? Why did the artist choose that material and what social, functional, aesthetic, or symbolic needs did they serve?
Interview with Cerny about recent works with Czech Radio:
http://old.radio.cz/ra/EN/03/07/EN030701-13-high.rm?:07.51&end=27:04.20
http://old.radio.cz/ra/EN/03/07/EN030701-13-high.rm?:07.51&end=27:04.20