Name: I Want To Be With You
Brand: Tracey Emin
Rating: 5 (236 reviews)

Meaning & Analysis

I Want To Be With You is a signed watercolour study by Tracey Emin, produced in 2015. The nude self-portrait is fluidly rendered in a wash of charcoal watercolour paints. Framing the reclining nude figure are washes of the same watercolour at the top and bottom of the composition, which create negative space to follow the feminine curvature of her form.

The work follows the stylistic and philosophical shift in her work around the time of her defining exhibition The Last Great Adventure Is You at the White Cube. Framed by two flowing washes of charcoal watercolour, Emin’s nude form reclines across the negative space at the centre of the composition.

Painted entirely in the same grey colour, the work has an effortless and rhythmic quality so typical of Emin’s drawn, painted, and printed output. Emin’s feminine form fills the composition, and suggests her mature sense of self. Coupled with the poetic title of the work, this watercolour study has a potent sense of intimacy and romance that is distinctive to Emin.

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).