How do you gain notoriety as a Young British Artist? Simple, you do a painting your bed in an unmade state, inclusive of used prophylactics and underclothes stained with period blood, then get it into the Turner Prize exhibition.
At least that what 46-year-old London-born but Margate-raised Tracey Emin did in 1999 to guarantee a media feeding frenzy … but the public was aware of this enfant terrible from 1997 when she appeared sozzled on what was supposed to be a high brow debate show on Ch4 TV, incoherently telling the host she wanted to go home to her mother.
A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Emin’s early influences were Edvard Munch and later Egon Schiele, though she eventually burnt all her work from this period of her career, before going on to study philosophy.
After running a shop called ironically The Shop with artist friend Sarah Lucas in Bethnal Green, selling their own works, in 1994 Emin soloed with her first exhibition at London’s prestigious White Cube gallery, with an autobiographical showing titled My Major Retrospective.
Featured were private photos, pics of her previously destroyed paintings, and items of such a personal nature that normally wouldn’t be shown by the average artist, such as her uncle’s cigarette packet he had in his hand when he was decapitated in a car accident. This penchant for showing things from her personal life is now a trademark for Emin.
Her other works include Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-95 - a tent with the names of all her lovers stitched onto it – and an autobiographical film named CV Cunt Vernacular which goes through her life from childhood.
