Tracey Emin

£3,850-£6,000Value
Indicator

$7,500-$11,500 Value Indicator

$6,500-$10,500 Value Indicator

¥35,000-¥50,000 Value Indicator

€4,450-€7,000 Value Indicator

$40,000-$60,000 Value Indicator

¥730,000-¥1,130,000 Value Indicator

$4,850-$7,500 Value Indicator

-4% AAGR (5YR)

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Meaning & Analysis

This dizzying lithograph was created by Tracey Emin in 2021, and forms part of the Reclining Nudes collection. The work was first shown on the occasion of the Tate Modern’s 21st anniversary. Emin renders her figure with a swift and fluid use of line, typical of her work, sitting on a bed which fills the composition.

When you think of the name Tracey Emin, one particular household item comes to mind: the bed. Emin’s controversial and painfully personal installation My Bed propelled the artist to fame and earned her a spot on the shortlist for the Turner Prize in 1999. The emotive yet contentious work was purchased by Charles Saatchi for £150,000 in 2000, and was sold at Christie’s in 2014 for over £2.5million.

It therefore seems only fitting that Emin returned to the subject of the bed once more in 2021, in celebration of the Tate Modern’s 21st anniversary exhibit. The work is not only a celebration of Tate, the gallery where My Bed was first exhibited, but also an homage to Emin’s controversial and genre-defying beginnings. In her delicate handling of the bed, we see the continuation of her intimate and intensely personal approach to art. This is no longer the bed of what Emin called a “mini nervous breakdown”, but a bed in which Emin rested during the national lockdown of 2021. For Emin, the bed is a constant in her life and work and will keep her in the league of iconic artists for decades to come.

Tracey Emin, born in 1963, stands as a fearless provocateur in the contemporary art scene. A trailblazer of the Young British Artists (YBA) movement in the late 1980s, the artist has sparked conversation and controversy for decades. Confronting themes of love, trauma and femininity with great vulnerability, Emin's work is a visceral tapestry of her life and has forged an intimate dialogue between artist and audience. In 1999, this raw approach to storytelling won her a nomination to the Turner Prize and, in 2007, it got her a coveted spot as a Royal Academician at the Royal Academy of Arts (RA).