Czech artist and provocateur David Černy has created dozens of controversial sculptures, but it was his inspired redecorating of a Soviet tank monument that earned the sculptor his early notoriety.
In Prague, on the early morning of April 28, 1991, Černy and a group of friends painted the tank, a so-called thank you to the Russians for their liberation of Czechoslovakia, bright pink.
“When I look at it through the prism of current events, I would have probably ended up today just like I did in 1988. I [would have] ended up in jail, got five years in prison and the whole nation would have applauded it all.”
Černy, now 48, is currently working on a piece for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics and a new sculpture which will be unveiled in Prague in Butovice this summer.
The famous Pink Tank 91 is now housed in the Military Museum Lešany, about 20 km outside of Prague.
See here for more photos of the artist and his tank.