Tracey Emin | |
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 Emin at Lighthouse Gala auction in aid ofTerrence Higgins Trust, 2007 | |
| Born | Tracey Karima Emin (1963-07-03)3 July 1963 (age 62) Croydon, England |
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| Website | traceyeminfoundation |
Dame Tracey Karima EminDBE RA (/ˈɛmɪn/; born 3 July 1963)[2][3] is an English artist known for autobiographical and confessional artwork. She produces work in a variety of media includingdrawing,painting,sculpture,film,photography,neon text and sewnappliqué.[4] Once the "enfant terrible" of theYoung British Artists in the 1980s, Emin was elected as aRoyal Academician in 2016[5].
In 1997, her workEveryone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995, a tent appliquéd with the names of everyone the artist had ever slept with, was shown atCharles Saatchi'sSensation exhibition held at theRoyal Academy in London.[6] In the same year, she gained considerable media exposure when she appeared to be drunk, and swore repeatedly, on a live television broadcast of a British discussion programme calledThe Death of Painting.[7]
In 1999, Emin had her first solo exhibition in the United States atLehmann Maupin Gallery, entitledEvery Part of Me's Bleeding. Later that year, she was nominated for theTurner Prize and exhibitedMy Bed – a readymade installation, consisting of her own unmade dirty bed, in which she had spent several weeks drinking, smoking, eating, sleeping and having sexual intercourse while undergoing a period of severe emotional flux. The artwork featured used condoms and blood-stained underwear.[8]
Emin is also a panelist and speaker: she has lectured at theVictoria and Albert Museum in London,[9] the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney (2010),[10] theRoyal Academy of Arts (2008),[11] and theTate Britain in London (2005)[12] about the links between creativity and autobiography, and the role of subjectivity and personal histories in constructing art. In December 2011, she was appointed Professor of Drawing at theRoyal Academy; withFiona Rae, she is one of the first two female professors since the Academy was founded in 1768.[13][14] Emin lived inSpitalfields, East London,[15][16][17] before returning toMargate, where she funds theTKE Studios with workspace for aspiring artists.[18][19][20]
Emin was born inCroydon, a district ofsouth London, to an English mother ofRomanichal descent[21] and aTurkish Cypriot father.[22] She was brought up inMargate, Kent, with her twin brother, Paul.[23]
Emin shares a paternal great-grandfather with her second cousinMeral Hussein-Ece, Baroness Hussein-Ece.[24][25]
Her work has been analysed within the context of early adolescent and childhood abuse, as well as sexual assault.[26] Emin was raped at the age of 13 while living in Margate, citing assaults in the area as "what happened to a lot of girls."[27] Emin later said in an article she wrote for theEvening Standard that she had "no memory of being a virgin", citing numerous times she was raped as a young teenager.[28]
She studied fashion at Medway College of Design (now part of theUniversity for the Creative Arts) (1980–82).[29][30] There she met expelled studentBilly Childish and was associated withThe Medway Poets.[31] Emin and Childish were a couple until 1987, during which time she was the administrator for his small press,Hangman Books, which published his confessional poetry.[31] From 1983–86[32] she studied printmaking atMaidstone Art College (now part of theUniversity for the Creative Arts) where she graduated with a first class degree inPrintmaking.[33][34] Also, whilst at Maidstone college of Art, Tracey Emin encountered Roberto Navickas aka Roberto Navikas, a name which was later to feature prominently in her "tent". Emin however, mistakenly misspelled his name by dropping a C. Navickas used this error to promote two artworks of his own, some twenty odd years later when re-entering the art world. The works were titled "The Lost C of Emin: The Discovery" & "The Lost C of Emin: A Reliquary" (see tent below).[35]
In 1995, she was interviewed in theMinky Manky[36] show catalogue byCarl Freedman, who asked her, "Which person do you think has had the greatest influence on your life?" To which she replied, "Uhmm... It's not a person really. It was more a time, going toMaidstone College of Art, hanging around with Billy Childish, living by theRiver Medway".[37]
In 1987, Emin moved to London to study at theRoyal College of Art, where in 1989 she obtained anMA in painting.[38][39] After graduation, she had two traumaticabortions and those experiences led her to destroy all the art she had produced in graduate school and later described the period as "emotional suicide".[40][41]
One of the paintings that survives from her time at Royal College of Art isFriendship, which is in that university’s Collection.[42] A series of photographs from her early work that was not destroyed was displayed as part ofMy Major Retrospective, a solo exhibition held at theWhite Cube gallery in London, from 19 November, 1993 to 8 January, 1994[41][43].
Her influences includeEdvard Munch andEgon Schiele, and for a time she studied philosophy atBirkbeck, University of London.[30][44]
On 3 January 1993, Emin opened a shop with fellow artistSarah Lucas, calledThe Shop at 103 Bethnal Green Road inBethnal Green, which sold works by the two of them, includingT-shirts andashtrays withDamien Hirst's picture stuck to the bottom (referencing the cigarette works he was doing at the time).[45][46] The venue also contained a life-drawing room in the basement, and studio space where Emin and Lucas worked.[46] Emin and Lucas were able to fundThe Shop with money Lucas had fromCharles Saatchi.[46]The Shop was open for six months and closed with Emin's 30th birthday - 'Fuckin’ Fantastic at 30 and Just About Old Enough to Do Whatever She Wants'.[46] After it closed, Emin burned everything that was left fromThe Shop in,gallerist,Carl Freedman's garden and the ashes were exhibited at her exhibitionMy Major Retrospective at theWhite Cube in November 1993.[46]
In November 1993, Emin had her first solo show atWhite Cube, a contemporary art gallery in London.[47] It was calledMy Major Retrospective, and wasautobiographical, consisting of personal photographs, photos of her (destroyed) early paintings, as well as items which most artists would not consider showing in public (such as a packet of cigarettes her uncle was holding when he was decapitated in a car crash).[48]
In the mid-1990s, Emin had a relationship withCarl Freedman, who had been an early friend of, and collaborator with,Damien Hirst, and who had co-curated seminalBritart shows, such asModern Medicine andGambler.[49] In 1994, they toured the US together, driving in aCadillac fromSan Francisco to New York, and making stops en route where she gave readings from her autobiographical bookExploration of the Soul to finance the trip.[50]
The couple spent time by the sea inWhitstable together, using abeach hut that she uprooted and turned into art in 1999 with the titleThe Last Thing I Said to You is Don't Leave Me Here,[51] which was destroyed in the 2004Momart warehouse fire.[40]
In 1995, Freedman curated the showMinky Manky[52] at theSouth London Gallery. Emin has said,
At that time Sarah (Lucas) was quite famous, but I wasn't at all. Carl said to me that I should make some big work as he thought the small-scale stuff I was doing at the time wouldn't stand up well. I was furious. Making that work was my way at getting back at him.[53]
The result was her "tent"Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995, which was first exhibited in the show. It was a blue tent, appliquéd with the names of everyone she has slept with. These included sexual partners, plus relatives she slept with as a child, her twin brother, and her two aborted children.[54]
The needlework which is integral to this work was used by Emin in a number of her other pieces. This piece was later bought byCharles Saatchi and included in the successful 1997Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy; it then toured to Berlin and New York. It, too, was destroyed by the fire in Saatchi's east London warehouse, in 2004.[55]
Emin was largely unknown by the public until she appeared on aChannel 4 television programme in 1997,"Is Painting Dead?". The show comprised a group discussion about that year'sTurner Prize and was broadcast live. Emin was drunk, slurred and swore before walking out of the interview.[56]
Two years later, in 1999, Emin was shortlisted for the Turner Prize herself and exhibitedMy Bed at theTate Gallery.[40]
There was considerable media attention regarding the apparently trivial and possibly unhygienic elements of the installation, such as yellow stains on the bedsheets, condoms, empty cigarette packets, and a pair of knickers with menstrual stains. The bed was presented as it had been when she had stayed in it for several days, feeling suicidal because of relationship difficulties.[57]
Two performance artists,Yuan Chai and Jian Jun Xi, jumped onto the bed with bare torsos to "improve" the work, which they thought had not gone far enough.[58]
In July 1999, at the height of Emin'sTurner Prize fame, she created a number ofmonoprints drawings inspired by the public and private life ofPrincess Diana for a themed exhibition calledTemple of Diana held at The Blue Gallery, London. Works such asThey Wanted You To Be Destroyed (1999)[59] related to Princess Diana'sbulimia, while othermonoprints included affectionate texts such asLove Was on Your Side and a description of Princess Diana'sdress with puffy sleeves. Other drawings highlightedThe things you did to help other people written next to a drawing by Emin ofDiana, Princess of Wales in protective clothing walking through a minefield in Angola. Another work was a delicate sketch of a rose drawn next to the phrase "It makes perfect sence (sic) to know they killed you" referring to the conspiracy theories surrounding Princess Diana's death. Emin herself described the drawings, saying they "could be considered quite scrappy, fresh, kind of naïve looking drawings" and "It's pretty difficult for me to do drawings not about me and about someone else. But I did have a lot of ideas. They're quite sentimental I think and there's nothing cynical about it whatsoever."[60]
Elton John collects Emin's work, as didGeorge Michael. Michael and his partnerKenny Goss held theA Tribute To Tracey Emin exhibition in September 2007 at their Dallas-based museum, the Goss-Michael Foundation[61] (formerly Goss Gallery).[62]
This was the inaugural exhibition for the gallery which displayed a variety of Emin works from a large blanket, video installations, prints, paintings and a number of neon works[63] including a special neon pieceGeorge Loves Kenny (2007) which was the centrepiece of the exhibition, developed by Emin after she wrote an article forThe Independent newspaper in February 2007 with the same title.[64] Goss and Michael (died 25 December 2016), acquired 25 works by Emin.[65]
Other celebrities and musicians who support Emin's art include modelsJerry Hall andNaomi Campbell, film starOrlando Bloom, who bought a number of Emin's works at charity auctions.[66] Pop bandTemposhark, whose lead singer collects Emin's art, named their debut albumThe Invisible Line, inspired by passages from Emin's bookExploration of The Soul.[67] Rock legendRonnie Wood of theRolling Stones is a well documented friend of Emin, whose own paintings are inspired by Emin's work.[68]
Emin was invited toMadonna's country estate Ashcombe. The singer described Emin, saying: "Tracey is intelligent and wounded and not afraid to expose herself," and, "She is provocative but she has something to say. I can relate to that."[69]David Bowie, a childhood inspiration of Emin's, also became friends with the artist. Bowie once described Emin as "William Blake as a woman, written byMike Leigh".[70]
Like theGeorge Michael andKenny Goss neon, Emin created a unique neon work for her supermodel friendKate MosscalledMoss Kin. In 2004, it was reported that this unique piece had been discovered dumped in a skip in east London. The piece, consisting of neon tubing spelling the wordsMoss Kin, had been mistakenly thrown out of a basement, owned by the craftsman who made the glass. The artwork was never collected by Moss and had therefore been stored for three years in the basement of a specialist artist used by Emin in the Spitalfields area. It was accidentally dumped when the craftsman moved.[71] The term used in the workKin is a recurring theme of Emin's to describe those dear to her, her loved ones. Other examples can be seen in a monoprint calledMatKin dedicated to her then boyfriend artistMat Collishaw and released as anaquatint limited edition in 1997.[72] Emin created a nude drawing ofKate Moss known asKate (2000), signed and dated1 February 2000 in pencil. In 2006, the same image was released as a limited edition etching, but renamed asKate Moss 2000 (2006).[73] Emin's work was included in the 2022 exhibitionWomen Painting Women at theModern Art Museum of Fort Worth.[74]
Main article:Stuckism
Emin's relationship with the artist and musicianBilly Childish led to the name of theStuckism movement in 1999. Childish, who had mocked her new affiliation to conceptualism in the early 1990s, was told by Emin, "Your paintings are stuck, you are stuck! – Stuck! Stuck! Stuck!" (that is, stuck in the past for not accepting the YBA approach to art). He recorded the incident in the poem, "Poem for a Pissed Off Wife" published inBig Hart and BallsHangman Books 1994, from whichCharles Thomson, who knew them both, later coined the term Stuckism.
Emin and Childish had remained on friendly terms up until 1999, but the activities of the Stuckist group offended her and caused a lasting rift with Childish. In a 2003 interview, when she was asked about the Stuckists, she said:
I don't like it at all… I don't really want to talk about it. If your wife was stalked and hounded through the media by someone she'd had a relationship with when she was 18, would you like it? That's what happened to me. I don't find it funny, I find it a bit sick, and I find it very cruel, and I just wish people would get on with their own lives and let me get on with mine.[75]
Childish left the Stuckist movement in 2001.[76]
From November 2002 to January 2003, Tracey Emin's solo exhibitionThis Is Another Place was held atModern Art Oxford and marked the museum's reopening[77] and renaming to Modern Art Oxford.[78] The exhibition was Emin's first British exhibition since 1997.[77] The exhibition contained drawings,[79] etchings, film, neon works such asFuck off and die, you slag,[79] and sculptures including a large-scale wooden pier, calledKnowing My Enemy,[79] with a wooden shack on its top made from reclaimed timber.[77]
Emin commented that she decided to exhibit in Oxford as museum directorAndrew Nairne had always been "a big supporter of my work".[77] An exhibition catalogue included 50 illustrations: "a compilation of images and writings reflecting her life, her sexual experiences and her desires and fears."[80]
On 24 May 2004, a fire in aMomart storage warehouse in East London destroyed many works from theSaatchi collection, including Emin's famous tent with appliquéd letters,Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995 ("The Tent") (1995) andThe Last Thing I Said To You Is Don't Leave Me Here ("The Hut") (1999), Emin's blue wooden beach hut that she bought with fellow artistSarah Lucas and shared with her boyfriend of the time, the galleristCarl Freedman. Emin spoke out angrily against what she perceived as a general public lack of sympathy, and even amusement, at the loss of the artworks in the fire.[58] She commented, "I'm also upset about those people whose wedding got bombed last week [in Iraq], and people being dug out from under 400ft of mud in the Dominican Republic."[81]
In August 2006, theBritish Council announced that they had chosen Emin to produce a show of new and past works for theBritish Pavilion at the 52ndVenice Biennale in 2007. Emin was the second woman to produce a solo show for the UK at the Biennale, followingRachel Whiteread in 1997. Andrea Rose, the commissioner for the British Pavilion, stated that the exhibition would allow Emin's work to be viewed "in an international context and at a distance from the YBA generation with which she came to prominence".[82][83]
Emin picked the titleBorrowed Light[84] for the exhibition. She produced new work especially for the British Pavilion, using a wide variety of media, from needlework, photography and video to drawing, painting, sculpture and neon. A promotionalBritish Council flyer included an image of a previously unseen monoprint for the exhibition calledFat Minge (1994) that was included in the show, while theTelegraph newspaper[85] featured a photo of a new purple neonLegs I (2007) that was on display (directly inspired by Emin's 2004 purple watercolourPurple Virgin series). Emin summed up her Biennale exhibition work as "Pretty and hard-core".[86]
Emin was interviewed about the Venice Biennale by the BBC'sKirsty Wark in November 2006. Emin showed Wark some work-in-progress, which included large-scale canvases with paintings of Emin's legs and vagina. Starting with thePurple Virgin (2004) acrylic watercolour series with their strong purple brush strokes depicting Emin's naked open legs, leading to Emin's paintings in 2005-2006 such asAsleep Alone With Legs Open (2005), theReincarnation (2005) series andMasturbating (2006) amongst others. These works were a significant new development in her artistic output.
Andrea Rose, the British Pavilion commissioner, added to this, commenting on the art Emin has produced, saying: "It's remarkably ladylike. There is no ladette work – no toilet with a poo in it – and actually it is very mature I think, quite lovely. She is much more interested in formal values than people might expect, and it shows in this exhibition. It's been revelatory working with her. Tracey's reputation for doing shows and hanging them is not good, but she's been a dream to work with. What it shows is that she's moved a long way away from the YBAs. She's quite a lady actually!"[87]
On 29 March 2007, Tracey Emin was made a Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of Arts. In becoming a member of the Royal Academy Emin joined an elite group of artists that includesDavid Hockney, Peter Blake, Anthony Caro and Alison Wilding. Her Academician status entitles Emin to exhibit up to six works in the annual summer exhibition.[88]
Emin had previously been invited to include works at theRoyal Academy Summer Exhibitions in 2001, then again from 2004-2007. For 2004's Summer Exhibition, Emin was chosen by fellow artist David Hockney to submit two monoprints, one calledAnd I'd Love To Be The One (1997), and another on the topic of Emin's abortion calledRipped Up (1995), as that year's theme celebrated the art of drawing as part of the creative process. 2007 saw Emin exhibit a neon work calledAngel (2005). Her art was first exhibited at the Royal Academy as part of theSensation exhibition in 1997.
For the June 2008 Summer Exhibition, Emin was invited tocurate a gallery.[89] Emin also gave a public talk in June 2008. Interviewed by art critic and broadcasterMatthew Collings, discussion focused around her role within the Royal Academy, the Academy's relationship to the contemporary art world, and her perspective, as an artist, on hanging and curating a gallery in the Summer Exhibition.[90] She exhibited her famousSpace Monkey – We Have Lift Off print at the 2009 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.[91]
The first major retrospective of Emin's work was held inEdinburgh between August and November 2008[92] attracting over 40,000 visitors, breaking theScottish National Gallery of Modern Art's record for an exhibition of work by a living artist.[93]
The large-scale exhibition included the full range of Emin's art from the rarely seen early work to the iconicMy Bed(1998), and the room-sized installationExorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made (1996). The show displayed her unique appliquéd blankets, paintings, sculptures, films, neons, drawings and monoprints. The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art was the only UK venue for the show which then went to theCentro de Arte Contemporáneo in Málaga, Spain,[94] and then to theKunstmuseum in Bern, Switzerland from 2009.[95]
It was reported on 6 November 2008 that Emin gifted a major sculpture to theScottish National Gallery of Modern Art as a "thank you"[96] to both the gallery and the city of Edinburgh. The workRoman Standard (2005) comprises a 13-foot-tall (4.0 m) bronze pole, surmounted by a little bird, cast in bronze. The work has an estimated value of at least £75,000.[93]
In May–August 2011, a major survey exhibition at London'sHayward Gallery consisted of work from all aspects of Emin's art practice,[97] revealing facets of the artist and her work that are frequently overlooked.[98] The exhibition included painting, drawing, photography, textiles, video and sculpture, with rarely before seen early works alongside more recent large-scale installations. Emin made a new series of outdoor sculptures especially for this solo show.[99]
On 6 October 2011, Emin opened a site-specific exhibition at a Georgian house onFitzroy Square.[100] The title is taken from her novel which has served as a catalyst for a series of works, created for a neoclassical house designed byRobert Adam in 1794. The exhibition also featured a series of embroidered texts and hand-woven tapestries which continued Emin's interest in domestic and handcrafted traditions.[101] Emin herself has said, "I called it that because I saw part of myself as drying and not there anymore and I wanted to question the whole idea of love and passion, whether love exists anymore...Why? Because I'm nearly 50, I'm single, because I don't have children."[100]
Emin was a mentor on the British Airways Great Britons Programme.[102] She also produced a poster and limited edition print for theLondon 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, one of only 12 British artists selected.[103] On 19 July 2012, Emin carried theOlympic torch through her hometown of Margate.[104]
In December 2020, Emin had a gallery exhibition containing works byEdvard Munch, entitledThe Loneliness of the Soul, at the Royal Academy of Arts. Emin selected 19 pieces of Munch's work to be displayed alongside 25 pieces of her own.[105] Simultaneously, she had a show at London'sWhite Cube gallery which included a shortSuper-8 film in tribute to Munch.[106]
The exhibition was re-shown at the newly openedMunch Museum in Oslo, with Emin being the first artist to show alongside the Norwegian painter.[107] Works included recent paintings, as well as her seminal workMy Bed. Emin had suffered from cancer the year before the exhibit, and was unsure whether she would be able to see it herself.[108] The exhibition travelled to theRoyal Academy of Arts in London in 2021.[109] Reviewing the exhibition forLondonist, Tabish Khan said: "It captures that sense of loneliness I've struggled to put into words, and left me emotionally spent".[110] It was also reviewed favourably inThe Guardian with Tim Adams writing "This exhibition is not comprehensive enough to be billed as a retrospective, but even so, everything that Emin has made and felt and suffered in the past is brought to full expression in it".[111]
An exhibition of Emin's work produced post-cancer diagnosis ran from 24 May 2024 until 27 July. The show includedYou Keep Fucking Me and was held in theXavier Hufkens gallery in Brussels. She toldThe Guardian: "It's the best show I have ever done."[112]
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Emin'smonoprints are a well-documented part of her creative output. These unique drawings have a diaristic aspect and frequently depict events from the past, for example,Poor Love (1999),From The Week of Hell '94 (1995), andRipped Up (1995), which relate to traumatic experiences; or other personal events as seen inFuck You Eddy (1995) andSad Shower in New York (1995), both of which are part of the Tate's collection of Emin's art.[113]
The monoprints often incorporate text as well as image, though some bear only text, others only image. The text appears as the artist's stream of consciousness. Some critics have compared Emin's text-only monoprints to ransom notes. Emin frequently misspells words, deliberately or due to the speed at which she does each drawing. In a 2002 interview withLynn Barber, Emin said: "It's not cute affectation. If I could spell, then I would spell correctly, but I never bothered to learn. So, rather than be inhibited and say I can't write because I can't spell, I just write and get on with it."[114]
Emin created a key series of monoprints in 1997 with the textSomething's Wrong[115] orThere Must Be Something Terebley Wrong With Me[116] [sic] written with spelling mistakes intact in large capital letters alongside "forlorn figures surrounded by space, their outlines fragile on the page. Some are complete bodies, others only female torsos, legs splayed and with odd, spidery flows gushing from their vaginas. They are all accompanied by the legendThere's Something Wrong."[117]
Other key monoprints include a series from 1994 and 1995 known as theIllustrations from Memory series which document Emin's childhood memories of sexual awakening and other experiences growing up inMargate, such asFucking Down An Ally 16/5/95 (1995) andIllustrations from Memory, the year 1974. In The Livingroom (1994). Emin further produced a set of monoprints detailing her memories ofMargate's iconic buildings such asMargate Harbour 16/5/95 (1995),The Lido 16/5/95 (1995), andLight House 15/5/95 (1995). Other drawings from 1994 include theFamily Suite series, part of theScottish National Gallery of Modern Art collection, consisting of 20 monoprints with "archetypal themes in Emin's art: sex, her family, her abortions, and Margate".[118] This series of monoprints was displayed for the first time from August 2008 at the Edinburgh gallery as part of her first major retrospective, which has been called theSummer Blockbuster exhibition.[119] A furtherFamily Suite II set was exhibited in Los Angeles in November 2007 as part of Emin's solo show at the Gagosian gallery.[120]
Emin's monoprints are rarely displayed alone in exhibitions. Emin has made several works documenting moments of sadness and loneliness experienced when traveling to foreign cities for various exhibitions, such asThinking of You(2005) andBath White I (2005)[121] which were from a series of monoprints drawn directly onto USA Mondrian hotel stationery.[122] Emin has said, "Being an artist isn't just about making nice things, or people patting you on the back; it's some kind of communication, a message."[123]
In 2009, along with book publisherRizzoli, Emin released a book titledOne Thousand Drawings. As the title suggests, the book contains 1,000 drawings from Emin's career since 1988. The book's release coincided with Emin's showThose who suffer love at White Cube.[124] Emin said in an interview that "We actually looked at about 2,000 drawings and then chose 1,000 drawings... I'd probably done, over that period of time about 4,000 drawings".[125]
Monoprint drawings of mothers and children that Emin drew during a pregnancy in 1990 were included in a 2010 joint exhibition withPaula Rego andMat Collishaw at theFoundling Museum.[126]
Rarely exhibited examples of monoprints gifted to friends and family of Emin form a niche but revealing body of work. Emin has gifted monoprints to individuals including her brother Paul Emin[127] and the singerCat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) with whom she shares Cypriot heritage.[128]
Emin displayed six small watercolours[129] in herTurner Prize exhibition in 1999, and also in her New York showEvery Part of Me's Bleeding held that same year, known as theBerlin Watercolour series (1998). These delicate, washed out but colourful watercolours include four portraits of Emin's face. They were all painted by Emin in Berlin during 1998, adapted from Polaroids of the artist taking a bath.[130] Each unique painting from this series share the same title,Berlin The Last Week in April 1998.[131] Simon Wilson, spokesperson for the Tate, commented that Emin included the set of tiny Berlin watercolours "as a riposte to the accusation that there are no paintings"[130] in the Turner Prize exhibitions. The bath theme seen in these watercolours was later revisited in her photographic workSometimes I Feel Beautiful (2000), and in monoprints such as theBath White (2005) series. With all these works, Emin explores aMary Cassatt quality of the "woman in a private moment".[citation needed]
In May 2005, London'sEvening Standard newspaper highlighted Emin's return to painting in their preview of herWhen I Think About Sex exhibition at White Cube. Emin was quoted as saying, "For this show I wanted to show that I can really draw, and I think they are really sexy drawings."[132]
Work for her 2007 show at theVenice Biennale included large-scale canvases of her legs and vagina. A watercolour series calledThe Purple Virgins were displayed. There are tenPurple Virgin works in total, six of which were shown at the Biennale. These were accompanied by two canvases of a similar style calledHow I Think I Feel 1 and 2.[citation needed] The Venice Biennale was also the first time Emin'sAbortion Watercolour series, painted in 1990, had ever been shown in public.[133]
Jay Jopling presented a new Emin painting,Rose Virgin (2007), as part of White Cube's stand at the Frieze Art Fair in London's Regent's Park on 10 October 2007, with more new paintings shown in Emin'sYou Left Me Breathing exhibition in Los Angeles' Gagosian gallery from 2 November 2007, described in an interview as an 'exhibition of sculpture and painting'.[62] A number of new paintings were on display includingGet Ready for the Fuck of Your Life (2007).[120]
An article by art criticAlastair Sooke published inThe Daily Telegraph in 2014 discussed Emin's change of direction from conceptual pieces to painting and sculpture. Sooke claimed that although Emin was appointed Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy in 2011, she had been taking drawing lessons privately for some years in New York, and that she had also been taking sculpture lessons for at least three years. Neither Emin or Jay Jopling have commented on the article.[134]
Emin has produced many photographic works throughout her career, includingMonument Valley (Grand Scale) (1995–97)[135] andOutside Myself (Monument Valley, reading "Exploration of the Soul") (1995)[136] which resulted "from a trip Emin made to the United States in 1994. She and her then boyfriend, writer, curator and gallery ownerCarl Freedman, drove from San Francisco to New York, stopping off along the way to give readings from her 1994 book,Exploration of the Soul. The photograph shows the artist sitting in an upholstered chair inMonument Valley, a spectacular location on the southern border of Utah with northern Arizona, holding her book. Although it is open, it is not clear whether she is looking at the viewer or at the text in front of her. Emin gave her readings sitting in the chair, which she had inherited from her grandmother, which also became part of Emin's art,There's A Lot of Money in Chairs (1994)."[137]
Other photographic works include a series of nine images comprising the workNaked Photos – Life Model Goes Mad(1996) documenting a painting performance Emin made in a room specially built in Galleri Andreas Brändström in Stockholm, Sweden. Another photographic series,Trying on Clothes From My Friends (She Took The Shirt Off His Back)(1997), shows the artist trying on her friends' clothes.[citation needed]
Other works such asI've Got It All (2000) show Emin with her "legs splayed on a red floor, clutching banknotes and coins to her crotch. Made at a time of public and financial success, the image connects the artist's desire for money and success and her sexual desire (her role as consumer) with her use of her body and her emotional life to produce her art (the object of consumption)",[137] whileSometimes I Feel Beautiful (2000) pictures Emin lying alone in a bath. Both these works are examples of her using "large-scale photographs of herself to record and express moments of emotional significance in her life, frequently making reference to her career as an artist. The photographs have a staged quality, as though the artist is enacting a private ritual."[137]
Emin's two self-portraits taken inside her beach hut,The Last Thing I Said To You Is Don't Leave Me Here I (2000) andThe Last Thing I Said To You Is Don't Leave Me Here II (2000) are adiptych, although they are often exhibited and sold separately. They depict a naked Emin on her knees inside her beach hut which she and friendSarah Lucas had bought in Whitstable, Kent in 1992.[138]
The hut itself later became the sculptureThe Last Thing I Said To You Is Don't Leave Me Here (The Hut) (1999). They are part of museum collections includingTate Modern, theSaatchi Gallery and theNational Portrait Gallery and have been mass produced as postcards sold in museum shops around the world.[citation needed]
Emin has also worked withneon lights. One such piece isYou Forgot To Kiss My Soul (2001)[139] which consists of those words in blue neon inside a neon heart-shape. Another neon piece is made from the wordsIs Anal Sex Legal (1998).[140] to complement anotherIs Legal Sex Anal (1998)[141]
For the Venice Biennale, she produced a series of new purple neon works, for example,Legs I (2007).[142] This 2007 series ofLegs neon works were directly inspired by thePurple Virgin (2004) watercolour series. For example,Legs IV (2007)[143] directly follows the watercolour lines of thePurple Virgin 9 (2004). For a joint 2010 exhibition with Paula Rego and Mat Collishaw, she decorated the front of the Foundling Museum with the neon words "Foundlings and fledglings are angels of this earth".[126]
Emin has donated neon work to auction for charity. In 2007, her neonKeep Me Safe piece reached the highest price ever made for one of her neon works, selling for over £60,000.[144] A brand new neon piece calledWith You I Want To Live was shown as part of Emin'sYou Left Me Breathing exhibition in 2007 at the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles.[145]
In 2018, Emin's largest neon work was displayed at LondonSt Pancras Station, the work calledI Want My Time With You hangs below the large central clock in the station.[146] In an interview withThe Guardian, Emin stated that the work was a message to the rest of Europe during theBrexit Crisis.[147] Passengers disembarkingEurostar trains from Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam arrive at the station every day underneath the work.
Emin frequently works with fabric in the form of appliqués (material (often cut out into lettering, sewn onto other material). She collects fabric from curtains, bed sheets and linen and has done so for most of her life. She keeps material that holds emotional significance for later use in her work. Many of her large-scale appliqués are made on hotel linens, for example,It Always Hurts (2005),Sometimes I Feel So Fucking Lost (2005),Volcano Closed (2001) andHelter Fucking Skelter (2001).Hate And Power Can Be A Terrible Thing (2004), part of the Tate's collection of Emin's work, is a large-scale blanket inspired in part byMargaret Thatcher due to her involvement in "an attack on 800 boys and men in the Argentinian navy" and other women. Women who steal their friends' boyfriends, for example (Emin says of this work "about the kind of women I hate, the kind of women I have no respect for, women who betray and destroy the hearts of other women").[148]
Emin's use of fabric is diverse. One of her most famous works came from sewing letters onto her grandmother's armchair inThere's A Lot of Money in Chairs (1994). The chair was very detailed, "including her and her twin brother's names, the year of her grandmother's birth (1901) and the year of her death (1963) on either side of the words 'another world,' referring to the passing of time. An exchange between the artist and her grandmother using the nicknames they had for each other:'Ok Puddin, Thanks Plum', covers the bottom front of the chair and a saying of Emin's grandmother's, "There's a lot of money in chairs", is appliquéd in pink along the top and front of its back. Behind the chair back, the first page ofExploration of the Soul, handwritten onto fabric, is appliquéd together with other dictums such as, "It's not what you inherit. It's what you do with your inheritance".[137]
Emin used the chair on a trip she made to the United States in 1994, driving from San Francisco to New York stopping off along the way to give readings from her book,Exploration of the Soul (1994). Emin gave her readings sitting in the upholstered chair and "as she crossed the United States, the artist sewed the names of the places she visited – San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Monument Valley, Detroit, Pittsburgh, New York – onto the front of the chair".[137] Emin also posed in the chair for two of her photographic works (see Photography) while in Monument Valley, in the Arizona Desert. It was on public display atPallant House Gallery until 6 March 2011 as part of the exhibition, 'Contemporary Eye: Crossovers.'
Emin has made a large number of smaller-scale works, often including hand sewn words and images, such asFalling Stars (2001),It Could Have Been Something (2001),Always Sorry (2005) andAs Always (2005).[149]
On 13 April 2007, Emin launched a specially designed flag made out of fabric with the messageOne Secret Is To Save Everything written in orange-red letters across the banner made up of hand-sewn swimming sperm. Emin's flag, sized 21 feet by 14 feet, flew above theJubilee Gardens in the British capital until 31 July 2007, with the parliament building and theLondon Eye as backdrops. Emin called the artwork "a flag made from wishful thinking".[150] The flag was commissioned by the South Bank Centre in London's Waterloo.
In June 2007, on returning from theVenice Biennale, Emin donated a piece of artwork, a handsewn blanket calledStar Trek Voyager to be auctioned atElton John's annual glamorous White Tie & Tiara Ball to raise money for TheElton John AIDS Foundation. The piece of artwork sold for £800,000.[151]
Emin's works on fabric has been related to other artists such asLouise Bourgeois, who Emin has also mentioned in a sewn work titledThe Older Woman (2005) with a monoprint on fabric phrase, "I think my Dad should have gone out with someone older like Louise, Louise Bourgeois" applied.[152] She was interviewed byAlan Yentob during the BBC's 2007Imagine documentarySpiderwoman about Louise Bourgeois.[153]
In February 2005, Emin's first public artwork,The Roman Standard, went on display outside theOratory, adjacent toLiverpool Cathedral. It consists of a small bird perched on a tall bronze pole, and is designed so that the bird seems to disappear when viewed from the front. It was commissioned by theBBC.[154] Emin says the sculpture represents strength and femininity.[155]
In September 2008, she unveiled a neon work that was installed in the well of the cathedral inLiverpool Cathedral.[156] Emin herself says of her continuing relationship of making public sculptures in the town, "When Liverpool is Capital of Culture in 2008, I'll be making a large work for the Anglican Cathedral, which I'm really looking forward to."[155]
Other sculptures includeDeath Mask (2002) which is a bronze cast of her own head. Emin loaned this work to theNational Portrait Gallery in 2005.
At Emin's 2007Venice Biennale exhibition, and the central exhibition'sTower sculptures, tall wooden towers consisting of small pieces of timber piled together, and a new small bronze-cast sculpture work of a child's pink sock was revealedSock(2007) on display on the steps of the British Pavilion.[157] Her exhibition again attracted widespread UK media coverage, both positive and negative.[58]
In September 2007, Emin announced she would be exhibiting new sculpture work in the inauguralFolkestone Triennial, which took place in the Kent town from June to September 2008. At the start of the exhibition's run, Emin discussed theFolkestone sculptures, stating the "high percentage" of teenage pregnancies in the Kent town had inspired this latest work.[158] Emin said, "I'm going to be making very tiny bronze-cast items of baby clothing. It's baby clothes that I have found in the street, like a mitten or a sock." She placed several of the pieces made around the town.[159]
Emin's 2007 solo show atGagosian Gallery in Los Angeles' Beverly Hills[120] included brand new sculpture works described by Emin as, "some very strange little sculptures. They are nearly all of animals, apart from one, which is a pineapple. They rest on mini-plinths made in a really brilliant LA, beach, California, Fifties surfer kind of style. Different woods put together in cute pattern formations. In some places the wood is 18th-century floorboards, some bits of cabin from tall ships or things which could have been found on the seashore – driftwood."[160]The New York Times included Emin in a piece about artists who are "Originals", with a new photograph with two sculptures, one of a small bird on a thin stand and a large seagull, both sculptures placed on wooden plinths.[161] Gagosian further described the many different sculptures from the show as, "a group of delicate wood andjesmonite sculptures, which expand on the spirals, rollercoasters, and bridges of recent years. Others incorporate cast bronze figures – seagulls, songbirds, and frogs – or objects combining cement and glass, which are placed on tables or bundled bases made from found timbers."[162]
In late November 2007, it was announced that Emin was one of six artists to have been shortlisted to propose a sculpture for the fourth plinth in London'sTrafalgar Square. The other shortlisted artists wereJeremy Deller,Antony Gormley,Anish Kapoor,Yinka Shonibare, andBob and Roberta Smith (pseudonym used byPatrick Brill).[citation needed]
The contenders were commissioned to produce a scale model of their idea. On 6 January 2008, it was revealed Emin's proposal was a lifesize model of a group of fourmeerkats, the desert mammal[163] entitledSomething for the Future.[164] The meerkats were labeled "as a symbol of unity and safety..." as "whenever Britain is in crisis or, as a nation, is experiencing sadness and loss (for example, afterPrincess Diana's funeral), the next programme on television is 'Meerkats United.'"[165] The successful proposal were announced in 2008 as Gormley, whose projectOne & Other occupied the plinth in summer 2009 and Shonibare, whose workNelson's Ship in a Bottle was unveiled in 2010.[166][167]
A project commissioned by Oslo Municipality Art Programme, is a 7-metre-tall bronze sculpture,The Mother. It was unveiled on Museum Island, outside the newMunch Museum in 2020. (http://www.themuseumisland.com/). From the jury's assessment: 'With its immediate and visceral artistic approach it appears both intimate and majestic, vulnerable and grandiose. The titleThe Mother refers to a mature protector and the sculpture brings to mind the ubiquitous motifs of women and the nude in Munch's work. As a non‐idealised depiction of a woman made by a woman it can also be seen as a feminist statement.'
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion with:an introduction, with sources, giving an overview and broad perspective of these efforts—are they a principal part of her work and legacy, and should the credits be shared with others (directors, producers, cinematographers, etc.)? What are the most important of the examples? Etc.. You can help byadding missing information.(January 2016) |
In the film, Emin describes leaving school at age 13 and spending her time on Margate's Golden Mile, dreaming and having sex. Sex "was something you could just do and it was for free". She was "13, 14" and having sex with men of "19, 20, 25, 26". In the film, the narration states: "It could be good, really something. I remember the first time someone asked me to grab their balls, I remember the power it gave me. But it wasn't always like that; sometimes they'd just cum, and then they'd leave me there, wherever I was, half naked."[176] In the final scenes, the artist performs at a local dance competition and people begin to clap. A gang of men, "most of whom [the artist] had sex with at one time or another"[176] began to chant "slag, slag, slag".[176]
In an interview withMelvyn Bragg, Emin commented on the incident: "I don't see why I was such a slag. All I did was sleep with a few people. It's not a crime, I didn't kill anyone."[177]
Emin has describedTop Spot as being "about the moment of... understanding that you are walking into an adult world which means sex, which means often violence, which means that you may suddenly have some perspective on your own life that you never had before."[41]Top Spot was given an 18 certificate by the British Board of Film Classification, much to Emin's dismay, as she intended the film for a teenage audience.[41][179]
Emin withdrew the film from general distribution in cinemas after it was rated with an 18 certificate.[180] It was broadcast on BBC3 television in the UK in December 2004,[181] and a DVD of the film was released in 2004.[citation needed]
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Emin has created a number of installation art pieces includingPoor Thing (Sarah and Tracey) (2001) which was made up of two hanging frames, hospital gowns, a water bottle and wire. A similar installation calledFeeling Pregnant III (2005) made up of fabric hung off wooden and metal coat hangers and stands was a later creation for Emin. Both of these installations touch further on Emin's relationship with pregnancy and abortion and can be related toLouise Bourgeois' sculptures such asUntitled (1996), a mobile of hanging clothes, andUntitled (2007), a series of standing bronze sculptures.
The Perfect Place to Grow (2001) was a video installation with a set consisting of a wooden birdhouse, a DVD (shot on Super 8), monitor, trestle, plants, and wooden ladder. This installation was exhibited at the Tate Britain in 2004 in their room dedicated to Emin's work, and was previously exhibited at White Cube in 2001. It was dedicated to her father, creating the bird house as "a tiny home for my dad", and Emin thought of the works' title from the idea of "nature and nurture".[182]
Knowing My Enemy (2002) was a large-scale installation created by Emin for herModern Art Oxford solo show of that year. Consisting of reclaimed wood and steel, Emin created a wooden "look-out" house upon a long, broken, wooden pier.It's Not the Way I Want to Die (2005) was another large-scale installation, part of Emin's 2005 solo show at White Cube. Emin created a large rollercoaster track with reclaimed timber and metal. Displayed in the same show was a smaller installation work calledSelf Portrait (2005) which consisted of a tin bath, bamboo, wire and neon light.[183] Another related installationSleeping With You (2005) consisted of painted reclaimed timber and a thin neon light across a dark wall.[152]
| This sectionneeds expansion with:an introduction, with sources, giving an overview and broad perspective of these efforts—are they a principle part of her work and legacy, or are some or all the principle work of others (e.g., the catalogues), or even minor works or afterthoughts? What are the most important of the examples? Etc.. You can help byadding missing information.(January 2016) |
The following books or book chapters have been authored by Emin:
An autobiographical short story covering Emin's conception through her life at age 13. Re-released in 2003, in an edition of 1000 by Counter Editions, though without the photographs and cloth bag.[citation needed]
A poster she photocopied and put up around her home when her cat Docket went missing became an object collected by people, but was excluded by Emin from her canon.[185]
In 2000, Emin was commissioned as part of a scheme throughout London titledArt in Sacred Spaces,[186] to collaborate with children on an artwork at Ecclesbourne Primary School inIslington, north London. Pupils made the piece with her in Emin's style of sewing cut out letters onto a large piece of material. In 2004, the school enquired if Emin would sign the work so that the school could sell it as an original to raise funds. They planned to auction the piece for £35,000 for an arts unit,[187] as it could not afford to display the large work. Emin and her gallery White Cube refused, saying that it was not a piece of her art, therefore reducing its value, and requested it be returned.[188] But Emin quickly came to an agreement with the school, where she paid £4,000 to create a perspex display box for the patchwork quilt to be showcased. Taking as her theme the title "Tell me something beautiful", Emin invited eight-year-olds to nominate their ideas of beauty and then to sew the keywords in felt letters on bright fabric squares. The resulting bold patchwork featured words such as "tree", "sunrise", "dolphin" and "nan".[189]
Art critic John Slyce, who has worked on school collaborations with artists, supported Emin and White Cube's decision saying, "This is a horrific precedent for the school to try to set. They were lucky to have an artist of that stature spending that amount of time with them ... the artwork should remain in context with the kids. Children's primary experience of art should not be as a commodity."[186]
In February 2013, she was named as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.[190]
In response to the question "Does she think society sufficiently value women artists?" Emin answered, "No. Of course not. But it's changing slowly. We probably just need another 200 years."[191]
Emin does not overtly appear as a feminist artist, nor does she believe so herself. In an interview with Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Emin stated that she is a feminist, but not a feminist artist.[192]
Emin discussessexism from the viewpoint of the being a female victim. Though Emin's subversion of feminine stereotypes, Sophie Lloyd describes her work as "…[embodying] a change in perception of female sexuality that was in line with third-wave feminism, with women defining beauty and sexuality on their own terms."[176] By narrating such harrowed and tortured memories, Emin uses vulnerability to tell not only her own struggles, but the struggles that many women may face while finding themselves.[176]
Emin openly discusses her 1998 installationMy Bed for audiences and interviewers alike. She has said, "By realizing how separate I was from it, I separated myself from the bed. I wasn't there any more."[193] This notion of a female using the domestic space and then removing herself from the environment, thus confronting stereotypes and taboos in a confessional work was a controversial event. Feminists critics have described Emin as using the historical notion of the bedroom and its importance for female experiences, as a site for crude intervention.[194]
John Molyneux explains in his articleEmin Matters, that her work revolves around class, sex and art itself. He writes, "What she does do is present herself as culturallyworking class…She makes no attempt to engage in 'intellectual art speak' but sticks to unaffected everyday language," employing a strategy that doesn't place her in authority over her viewers or peers.[195] However, her class background contradicts this tactic of equal understanding. Emin's mother until age seven owned a hotel in Margate, but bankruptcy and poverty ensued only when she broke up with Emin's father.[195] While she may use street language, swear words, grammatical errors and misspellings to convey a primarily middle-class experience, Emin now functions as a boss of her own art business and exists within theeliteupper class.[195] Her relationship with sex is a major theme and aspect of her work. Feminist writers have reviewed Emin's pieces as containing, "…no element of eroticism or titillation…unlike in Botticelli, Renoir or Klimt. Nor is it sexual fantasy or dreams, as we might find insurrealism, or the sex of the brothel featured so heavily in late 19th-century French art. It is real, everyday sex—as experienced by her, of course, but also by millions of other people".[195]
While studying painting at the Royal College of Art Emin became disenchanted with the art of painting, "the idea of being a bourgeois artist, making paintings that just got hung in rich people's houses was a really redundant, old fashioned idea that made no sense for the times that we were living in."[196] She felt there was no point in making art that someone had made decades or centuries before her. "I had to create something totally new or not at all". When asked by a reporter when she decided that her life 'as Tracey Emin' was going to be her art, she replied '"I realised that I was much better than anything I'd ever made".[196]
Roberta Smith ofThe New Yorker says of Emin's work: "In her art she tells all, all the truths, both awful and wonderful, but mostly awful, about her life. Physical and psychic pain in the form of rejection, incest, rape, abortion and sex with strangers figure in this tale, as do love, passion and joy."[197]
In 1998, Emin duetted with pop singerBoy George on a song called "Burning Up", released on an 18 track audio CD that accompanied the bookWe love you.[198]
In 2005, Emin compiled a CD of her favourite music calledMusic To Cry To, which was released and sold by the UK household furnishings retailer and brandHabitat.[199]
In 2009, Emin designed the album artwork for a release by singer/songwriterHarper Simon, son ofPaul Simon. The front cover depicts an aeroplane, drawn in Emin's scratchy monoprint style.[200]
In spring 2020, Emin was diagnosed with squamous-cellbladder cancer.[201] She underwent an operation to remove her bladder and several adjacent organs (radical cystectomy and fullhysterectomy[112]) that summer 2020. This left her inremission, with astoma.[202]
In December 2023, Emin was travelling from Australia to Thailand on the way back to the United Kingdom, when she experienced complications from an operation on hersmall intestine, which she said "nearly exploded". She was subsequently hospitalised inPhuket, Thailand.[203]
Emin is well known for her charity work; she has raised over a million pounds for children's charities such as theNSPCC and for HIV/AIDS charities including theTerrence Higgins Trust. She frequently donates original artworks for charity auctions, and has often adopted the role of auctioneer on the charity night to help increase the highest bid.[citation needed]
In June 2007, while returning from theVenice Biennale, Emin donated a piece of artwork. The piece was a hand-sewn blanket titledStar Trek Voyager, auctioned atElton John's annual glamorous White Tie & Tiara Ball, a gala to raise money for The Elton John AIDS Foundation. The piece of artwork sold for £800,000[151] Also in June 2007, Emin's neon workKeep Me Safe reached the highest price ever (at that time) made for one of her neon works, selling for over £60,000.[144]
Emin has participated inThe Independent newspaper'sChristmas Appeal for many years, where she has auctioned bespoke artworks and drawing lessons. In December 2006, her lot raised £14,000 for a one-on-one drawing lesson over champagne and cake.[204] The following year, in December 2007, her lot raised £25,150 for a unique drawing of the highest bidder's pet, embroidered onto a cushion in Emin's trademark style.[205]
In January 2008, Emin went to Uganda where she had set up the brand new "Tracey Emin Library" at the rural Forest High School. She explained in her newspaper column, "Schools here don't have libraries. In fact,rural areas have very little. Most have no doctor, no clinic, no hospital; schools are few and far between. Education cannot afford to be a priority, but it should be... I think this library may be just the beginning."[206]
OnValentine's Day 2008, Emin donated a red heart-shaped neon artwork titledI Promise To Love You (2007), for a charity auction to raise money forThe Global Fund, which helps women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa. The auction was called(Auction) RED. The work sold for a record price of $220,000,[207] which was much higher than the guide estimation of $60,000 to $80,000.[citation needed]
In 2023, Tracey Emin opened TKE Studios in Margate housing affordable spaces for professional artists to work (TKE Studio Members), as well as the ‘Tracey Emin Artist Residency’ (TEAR) programme.[208] TKE Studio Members includeStudio Lenca,Vanessa Raw andLindsey Mendick. Graduates of TEAR includeBianca Raffaella, Helen Teede and Emmie Nume.[209]
Emin has been a critic ofBritain's income tax regime, stating"I'm simply not willing to pay tax at 50%", she is "very seriously considering leaving Britain", and suggests she will live in France. "The French have lower tax rates and they appreciate arts and culture."[210][211] Emin has since denied that she intends to leave the country, stating that a journalist she spoke to previously exaggerated her comments, and that London is her home, and is the context in which she belongs.[212][213][214]
The Independent newspaper reported in August 2010 that Emin is thought of as a supporter of theConservative Party.[215] This was confirmed in an interview withNew Statesman, where she revealed that she voted for the Conservatives at the2010 general election, adding, "We've got the best government at the moment that we've ever had."[216] She has stated that she is an 'outsider' in the art world, as a result of voting Conservative. She is aroyalist.[217]
In April 2014, Emin, who has a home and studio in Spitalfields, publicly called to save an East London newsagent who faced eviction fromOld Spitalfields Market, after 22 years in business. She started a petition to save newsagent Ashok Patel's business, which was signed by 1,000 people.[218]
In August 2014, Emin was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter toThe Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September'sreferendum on that issue.[219]
In 2007, London's Royal Academy of Arts elected Tracey Emin as a Royal Academician and four years later, the Academy appointed Emin a Professor of Drawing. The University of Kent also awarded Emin an honorary doctorate in 2007.[40]
Emin was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the2013 New Year Honours for services to the arts.[220][221] In February 2013, she was named one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom byWoman's Hour onBBC Radio 4.[222]
Emin was made an honorary freewoman of Margate in 2022.[223]
Emin was appointedDame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the2024 Birthday Honours for services to art.[224][225]
In December 2024, Tracy Emin was included on theBBC's100 Women list.[226]
Emin's primary galleries are White Cube in London (since 1993), Lorcan O'Neill in Rome, andXavier Hufkens in Brussels.[227] In 2017, Emin and Lehmann Maupin ended their working relationship.[228]
Charles Saatchi, who was best known as the most high-profile, high-spending collector of contemporary British art, boughtMy Bed (1998) for £150,000 ($248,000) from Lehmann Maupin's "Every Part of Me's Bleeding," the exhibition that won the artist a nomination for the 1999Turner Prize.[229][230] In 2013, on the occasion of aChristie's London sale that raised a total of 3.1 million pounds ($5 million) in aid of theSaatchi Gallery's policy of free entry,To Meet My Past (2002) sold for $778,900, establishing a new record for the artist.[231] At another Christie's auction in 2014,My Bed was sold to White Cube founding directorJay Jopling[232] for 2.5 million pounds, including buyer's commission, once again to benefit the Saatchi Gallery's foundation.[233] It was estimated that the price ofMy Bed would sell between 800,000 and 1.2 million pounds.[230][234] Before the sale, Emin said that "what I would really love is that someone did buy it and they donated it to the Tate."[234]
Her most commonly auctioned sculptural works are phrases in her own handwriting set in neon, usually issued in editions of three, with two artist's proofs.[229]In 2011, British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron added an artwork with 'more passion' in neon by Emin in his private apartment at10 Downing Street.[235] In January 2022, Emin requested that the artwork be removed in response to theWestminster lockdown parties controversy.[236]
In April 2014, Emin participated at The Other Art Fair for unrepresented artists.[237]
I’ve Got It All (2000) sold at £74,500.[238]
Like A Cloud of Blood (2022), among the first paintings Emin made following her six-month recovery from cancer treatment, was sold by the artist in October 2022 at Christie's, to benefit the Tracey Emin Foundation, in support the work of TKE Studios, a subsidised professional artist's studios with an additional twenty residencies including a free arts educational program. The deeply personal large-scale canvas sold for £2,322,000 — a new record price for a painting by the artist.[239]
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