Tracey
Emin

Born in South London, in 1963, Emin was brought up by her family in Margate, Kent, with her twin brother Paul. From 1980-82 she studied fashion at Medway College of Design, where she met confessional poet and artist Billy Childish, becoming part of the Medway poets’ group herself.

In 1984 she attended Maidstone Arts college to study printing, where she graduated with a first. Following the end of her relationship with Childish in 1987, Emin moved to London, where she studied painting at the Royal College of Art. Unfortunately, the trauma Emin suffered following two abortions she went through after graduating, led her to destroy all works she made at the Academy.

Emin had her first solo exhibition Every Part of Me’s Bleeding at the Lehmann Maupin Gallery in 1999. The show contained works across a variety of mediums, including the installation that helped to launch her career and reputation, Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995, or The Tent (1994). Also presented at the Young British Artists show, this work consisted of a canvas tent, with 102 names of every person Emin had ‘slept’ with sewn into the walls. The artist here played into the ambiguity of the term ‘slept,’ encouraging upset if considered a euphemism for sexual intercourse, as the names included those of her brother, family members and two unnamed foetuses.

Charles Saatchi acquired The Tent in 1999, later destroyed in a fire in the East Momart warehouse in 2004, alongside over 100 other works in the Saatchi collection. Despite being offered £1 million to remake The Tent after the fire, Emin refused.

Shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1999, one of Emin’s most prolific, and indeed notorious, works is her installation My Bed. This work was created in response to Emin’s grief following a break up, and offers no attempt to hide the ugly reality of such emotional turmoil. Consisting of the artist’s own bed, we see soiled sheets and underwear, empty alcohol bottles, condoms, detritus and even bodily fluids utilised by Emin here. This work recreated the physical aftermath of what the artist called her 'mini nervous breakdown' where she did not leave her bed for four days.

My Bed garnered huge critical responses at the time, much of it negative, with many arguing that anyone could exhibit an unmade bed, or claiming that this installation was nothing other than sexual provocatism. Emin’s defence of her work and the fact that it caused such public disagreement all but ensured its commercial success. Despite Emin not winning the Turner Prize that year, her name was irrevocably solidified in the leading contemporary art scene.

In an interview in 2006, Emin stated that expressionist artists such as Egon Schiele and Edvard Munch have always been sources of inspiration for her. Munch’s 1895 painting Jealousy in particular spoke to a sense of self-effacement and brutal personal honesty that Emin is now known for herself. Indeed, the two artist’s works were paired in the recent Royal Academy Exhibition, Loneliness of the Soul, in 2021, where Emin’s choice of Munch works demonstrates their similarities.

Her use of neon lighting also indicates the influence of artist Bruce Nauman, and Emin’s focus on the confessional, and of the female experience draws influence from earlier feminist artists such as Carolee Schneeman and Frida Khalo.

As an artist who works across many different forms of media, it is difficult to categorise Emin’s style. An element of personal experience however, seems to be a unifying feature of her output, with personal monologues often being incorporated in her prints, tapestries, neons and installations. Similarly, the bird motif is one that Emin consistently returns to, stating that 'To me, they represent something that is heavenly, because they fly. It’s like ascension…Sometimes when I’m in a strange mood or a bit low, I try to take myself out of it by drawing a bird.'  Intimate works such as Self Portrait as Small Bird, (2002) epitomise this metaphorical escapism.

Levels of autobiography in Emin’s work are often achieved through her use of her own personal items, photographs and handwriting. Her use of applique and needlepoint technique in her embroidered works suggest an inversion of typically female domestic crafts, contesting their association with ‘low’ craft.

Emin’s work is often viewed in terms of the abuse she suffered as a young teenager, and Emin herself has never shied away from discussing her rape at age 13, and the culture of sexual assault that surrounded her in her town growing up, as something that 'happened to a lot of girls.'

Emin joined the Young British Artists group, alongside huge names such as Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas in the early 90s. Her and Lucas opened The Shop in Bethnal Green in 1993, where they sold their works, namely t-shirts and ashtrays printed with slogans the pair created. While her media presence became less sensational after the 1990s, Emin remained a seminal figure in British contemporary art, with many high profile celebrity collectors, including Elton John and Orlando Bloom. She represented Britain in the 2007 Venice Biennale and was made a Royal Academician that same year.

She was appointed a CBE in 2013 and currently resides in Margate after surviving her battle with bladder cancer. When she does die she expresses her hope that her studio here will become a museum.