Tracey Emin is one of the most famous artists working anywhere in the world today, but this will be her first major retrospective exhibition.
Famously, Tracey Emin’s art is all about Tracey Emin. Born in London in 1963, she grew up in Margate and experienced a difficult childhood. She dropped out of school, was raped at the age of thirteen, and drifted about town. Her early work refers to her experiences in Margate. From 1987-89 she studied at the Royal College of Art. An abortion in 1990 led to a total crisis in confidence, when she destroyed all her own work, stopped painting and took instead to writing.
In 1993 she held her first exhibition, at the White Cube Gallery in London. Featuring texts, mementos and embroidered blankets, it caused a sensation, propelling Emin into the ranks of the best-known artists in Britain. Since then, works such as her Tent (featuring the names of all the people she has ever slept with, embroidered within it) and Bed (a bed with all the detritus of contemporary living scattered about it), have made her a household name. Yet it remains the case that she is famous for a small number of works and the full extent of her oeuvre is unknown.
This show, occupying the whole ground floor of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, features paintings, drawings, installations, embroidered blankets, sculptures and neon lights, and provides a full overview of the career of this remarkable artist.
