Jiří Sopko

“When I was in the army I served at the Army Art Studio here in Žižkov [Q: What was that?] The Army Art Studio was... the budget that soldiers received included an enormous sum, I don’t know how big, for art. So the staff army artists - such as Radek Kolář, Schoř, the sculptor Zdrůbecký, Čermáková... they painted those totally regime-conformed pictures. And they bought those for the army themselves. We were there as kind of flunkeys, there were about four us. So for example, we acted as security for exhibitions and things like that.”

“Things started slowly freeing up after a very long time. They allowed us to exhibit in these... I don’t know, in Sokolov or in those really peripheral local galleries. There was a kind of group of us - Načeradská, Lamr, and Rudla Němec. So the four of us, sometimes just two or three, exhibited in these regions. I know one time I was exhibiting my watercolours in some culture club. I can’t remember if it was in Sokolov or where. All I know was that no one came to the vernissage, much to my relief. There were only two young lady censors there, who really liked it, they were guffawing and saying they had to send schools to see this. The next day their boss came - I didn’t see her in person - and said: ‘Out with it immediately!’”