The ups and downs of a Sculptor

Amongst the many sculptures in Prague there are a few that can be described as .... different. You will almost always be correct if you were to guess that they are the works of well known, often controversial Czech sculptor, David Cerny.

 High above one of the streets of the Old Town (Stare Mesto) is the Hanging Man sculpture. It can just as well be called Hanging On. The man in the precarious position is Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis with its focus on man’s inner workings. He is the one person who should know that central to the human existence is the choice to hang on or to let go.

The impact of the sculpture is all the more striking if you stand with a tour group in front of the former headquarters of the communist Secret Police where a good deal of torture and interrogations took place. Then, almost as an afterthought, just as the group is about to move on,  the guide draws your attention to this work of Cerny, suspended in mid air, way in the background behind you. Standing in that free modern setting, you realise that the people of Prague at one stage made their choice. You admire them.

  

This sculpture depicts the much loved good King Wenceslas on Wenceslas square in the heart of Prague.

It is not by Cerny.

  

This one is.  It hangs in the Lucerna Palace, one of the buildings surrounding Wenceslas Square. 

With his wry sense of humour, Cerny provides an ironic twist on the central, elegant and well-known statue outside. In the process he comments on current politicians and their policies that give new meaning to “flogging a dead horse”. 

He also has a bone to pick with the so called protectors of good taste. It is not only because of his deadness that the upside- down horse is sticking out his tongue.

George