You Can't Fuck A Shoe
You Can't Fuck A Shoe
Signed Print
Tracey Emin
£1,250-£1,850 VALUE (EST.)
$2,350-$3,450 VALUE (EST.)
$2,100-$3,100 VALUE (EST.)
¥11,000-¥16,000 VALUE (EST.)
€1,450-€2,150 VALUE (EST.)
$12,000-$18,000 VALUE (EST.)
¥220,000-¥320,000 VALUE (EST.)
$1,550-$2,300 VALUE (EST.)
This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
Etching, 2010
Signed Print Edition of 200
H 39cm x W 43cm
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Auction Results
| Auction Date | Auction House | Artwork | Hammer Price | Return to Seller | Buyer Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2022 | Chiswick Auctions - United Kingdom | You Can't Fuck A Shoe - Signed Print | |||
| February 2022 | Chiswick Auctions - United Kingdom | You Can't Fuck A Shoe - Signed Print | |||
| January 2021 | Hessink’s - Netherlands | You Can't Fuck A Shoe - Signed Print | |||
| September 2015 | Bonhams Knightsbridge - United Kingdom | You Can't Fuck A Shoe - Signed Print | |||
| May 2012 | Bonhams Knightsbridge - United Kingdom | You Can't Fuck A Shoe - Signed Print |
Meaning & Analysis
This 2010 etching by Tracey Emin pictures two naively rendered high heeled shoes in blue ink. Around these strappy platform heels at the centre of the composition, haphazard daubs of ink are suggestive of Emin’s rapid and spontaneous approach to her printmaking process. Underneath the focal shoes are the witty words from which the work takes its title, written in Emin’s distinctive handwriting.
Synonymously witty and disturbing, You Can’t Fuck A Shoe is archetypal of Emin’s entire body of work. In her typically naive and sketchy style, Emin renders a pair of platform strappy heels. Underneath the sexy shoes are the words “You Can’t Fuck A Shoe” in Emin’s handwriting, perhaps as a satirical comment on the shoe as a fetish object. As a fetish object in the Freudian sense, shoes have a longstanding reputation in art history as being sexually suggestive - especially among the Surrealists. As Emin wryly suggests however, you can’t have sex with her platform heels, no matter how alluring they may be. As with many of Emin’s other prints and drawings, there is a rather infantile quality to this work, revealing her playful and ever explorational approach to sex.
