SACRAMENTO, CALIF.- The Crocker Art Museum is presenting David Černı: Rebellion, an exhibition of 29 works by Czech artist David Černı, on view from Oct. 6, 2024, to Jan. 12, 2025.
Černı is often described as a street artist, engineer, architect, pilot, rebel, and provocateur, but the terms most akin to his nature are innovator and disruptor. He is widely recognized for his monumental sculptures in public spaces, which speak directly to everyday people and protest authority through satire and derision. All his works have a personal connection to the evolving history of his country—the Czech Republic—and Europe broadly in the post-World War II era. His political views—anti-authoritarian, anti-Communist, and anti-censorship—stem from his journey as a contemporary artist during a time when regressive ideologies have returned, wars continue to be waged, and societies are dehumanized by governments and economics.
“This striking exhibition presents work that is challenging and engaging,” said Scott A. Shields, PhD, the Crocker’s Ted and Melza Barr Chief Curator and Associate Director. “Černı’s deep ties to political protest and representing the concerns of the people resonate with so many.”
Černı’s goal is to generate an open debate and provoke audiences to think about his message. The shapes, materials, and themes of each sculpture are chosen to create the biggest impact possible, leaving no one indifferent to his work. In the Crocker’s exhibition, the power of Černı’s political satire is abundantly clear. The works included in the show communicate the artist’s concern for the dehumanization of society and the rise of extremist ideologies, while exploring themes of dominance, power, and destruction.
Originally conceived for a museum show in Chicago in 1991, the first set of Černı’s Babies was not realized until 2001, when they were made to crawl up the Žižkov Television Tower in Prague. The oversized infants debuted in the same year the city was recognized as the cultural capital of Europe, an annual award bestowed upon cities rich in arts, music, and theater. Ironically, by climbing the 300-foot tower, the babies shed light upon the building’s intent, which was to act as a signal jammer used by Russian censors to block Western shows from being seen by the Czech public. Russia’s efforts at blocking programming that might disrupt Communist-only propaganda were highlighted by the presence of the sculptures, which turned the symbol of restriction into site for creative freedom.
A version of Finger is also included in the Crocker’s presentation. In 2013, on the eve of the Czech general elections, Černı placed a 30-foot middle finger on a barge in the Vltava River in front of the presidential palace, an in-your-face message to President Miloš Zeman, a Communist sympathizer. “This finger is aimed straight at the castle politics,” Černı explains. “After 23 years, I am horrified at the prospect of the Communists returning to power and of Mr. Zeman helping them to do so.”
The monumental sculptures included in the exhibition also showcase the artist’s skill with a variety of materials, including metals, resins, plastic, fiberglass, and electronics. Černı’s resin and LED wall sculpture Albert Einstein depicts one of the world’s most renowned scientists and thinkers. Using a proprietary technique in which three-dimensional objects float within a polymer resin as if seen via X-ray, Černı showcases gears, cogs, bones, and other items that denote the inner workings of brilliance within the seemingly translucent makeup of Einstein’s playful face. A series of works using this process are included in the exhibition.
Free-thinking, strong-willed, and eccentric, Černı continues to provoke and encourage contemplation in everything he creates, including in a recently unveiled monumental sculpture titled Věra for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, a piece honoring the late Czech gymnast and dissident Věra Čáslavská. Whether paying homage, assaulting politics, or creating whimsical metaphors of contemporary society, he aims to connect directly with the public, making works that are impossible to ignore.
Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1967, Černı grew up in an artistic family, his father being a painter, his mother an art restorer. And yet, Černı has long rejected the idea of being an “artist,” embracing instead a path more akin to that of his grandfather, who was an inventor and officer in the army. Sharing his grandfather’s love of engineering, Černı was fascinated by how things worked, from building model airplanes to deconstructing toy trains. In high school, he studied theater and film and was accepted to the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, where he studied industrial design. Today, these skills allow him to create work that is as distinguished for its craftsmanship as for the adventurous themes he addresses.
Černı’s oeuvre has been characterized by large-format sculptures displayed in public spaces, with a clear intent to speak to the people and protest authority. For more than thirty years, he has used his art to connect with the public, entertaining us, disturbing us, or both, all the while shouting at us to wake up and pay attention to the world in which we live.
