“I know I will be making art till the day I die”: Tracey Emin takes to the Tate.
The artist unveils the “largest ever survey exhibition” of her work at the Tate Modern.
Tracey Emin is dominating this month’s cultural calendar. Known for her visceral, often firsthand, exploration of the female body and society, the English creative is a force in contemporary art with a Turner Prize nomination as proof. Her work even earned her a damehood in 2024 for her outstanding services to British art. Last week, at London’s Tate Modern, the artist consolidated her status once again with what she’s noted to be the “biggest moment of my career”.
Tracey Emin: A Second Life, which opened on February 27th, takes a tour through the artist’s career, which spans 40 years, in what’s considered the “largest ever survey exhibition celebrating the groundbreaking work of [the] world-renowned artist.” The new meets the old in this exhibition, as some of Emin’s most famed pieces, including her disruptive installation The Bed, join works that have not been displayed to the public until now.
I WAS TOO YOUNG TO BE CARRYING YOUR ASHES, 2017–18
MY BED, 1998
Love and trauma are, in true Emin style, cast under an autobiographical lens throughout. Her signature blood-red brush strokes, which make up the grief-focused I was too young to be carrying your Ashes, and her almost 10-foot-long quilted comment on abortion are an intimate window into her life and a poignant social commentary.
“I know I will be making art till the day I die,” Emin said on Instagram upon the exhibition’s opening. “I will never stop making, creating, changing and thinking about my perception of the world. Right now, more than ever, I believe we have to make a stand for what we believe in. We have to protect those who need protecting, that includes ourselves. I always knew what kind of artist I wanted to be, now I’m just beginning,” she continued, before asking people to donate to Elton John’s AIDS Foundation in lieu of sending her flowers.
With the promise of more to come from the artist, and a legacy filled with boundary-pushing work,Tracey Emin: A Second Life is the exhibition to see.
I WHISPER TO MY PAST DO I HAVE ANOTHER CHOICE, 2010
EXORCISM OF THE LAST PAINTING I EVER MADE, 1996
MAD MAD TRACEY FROM MARGATE. EVERYONES BEEN THERE, 1997
Running until August 31st, the exhibition, presented in partnership with Gucci, is on display in the Tate’s Eyal Ofer Galleries.
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