Tracey Emin Biography and Artwork

born Croydon 1963

Tracey Emin (born 3 July 1963) is an English artist of Turkish Cypriot origin, one of the so-called Young British Artists (YBAs), also known as Britartists. She is a prominent member of Britain's, more specifically London's Turkish community. She has succeeded in equaling, if not surpassing, Damien Hirst among the YBAs in terms of notoriety among the general public.

A drunken outburst on a Channel 4 TV discussion, and "My Bed" an installation in the 1999 Turner Prize exhibition, consisting of her own unmade dirty bed with used condoms and blood-stained underwear – both caused a media furore.

Tracey Emin was born in Croydon, but brought up in Margate. She has a twin brother, Paul. Emin's father, an ethnic Turkish Cypriot, was married to a woman other than her mother and divided his time between his two families. He owned the Hotel International in Margate, and, when the business failed, Emin's family suffered a severe decline in their standard of living, circumstances which have featured in a number of works. Around the age of 13 she was raped or "broken in" as she describes the then-current term.

She studied fashion at Medway College of Design (1980–1982), where she met expelled student Billy Childish and was associated with The Medway Poets. Emin and Childish were a couple till 1986, Emin selling his poetry books for his small press Hangman books. In 1984 she studied printing at Maidstone Art College, which she has described as one of the best experiences of her life. In 1987 she moved to London to study at the Royal College of Art, where she obtained an MA in painting, though she has described this time as a very negative experience.

Her influences included Edvard Munch and Egon Schiele. Later she destroyed all her paintings from this early period, and for a time studied philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London. In 1993 Emin opened a shop called simply The Shop in Bethnal Green with fellow artist Sarah Lucas. This sold works by the two of them, including T-shirts and ash trays with Damien Hirst's picture stuck to the bottom. Lucas paid Emin a wage to mind the shop and Emin also made extra money by agreeing to write letters to people, one being Jay Jopling, who became her dealer.

During this period Emin was also working with the gallerist Joshua Compston. In 1994 she had her first solo show at the White Cube gallery, the leading contemporary art gallery in London. It was called "My Major Retrospective", and was what is now seen as typically autobiographical in her work, consisting of personal photographs, and photos of her (destroyed) early paintings, as well as items which most artists would not consider showing in public, such as a packet of cigarettes her uncle was holding when he was decapitated in a car crash.

This willingness to show details of what would generally be thought of as her private life has become one of Emin's trademarks. In the mid-1990s she had a relationship with Carl Freedman, who had been an early friend of, and collaborator with, Damien Hirst and who had co-curated seminal Britart shows, such as Modern Medicine and Gambler. In 1994 they toured the US together, driving in a Cadillac from San Francisco to New York, and making stops en route where she gave readings from her autobiographical book "Exploration of the Soul" to finance the trip.

En route they "belly surfed" in San Diego and watched bears in Big Sur. The couple also spent time by the sea in Whitstable together, using the beach hut, which she uprooted and turned into art in 1999 with the title The Last Thing I Said to You is Don't Leave Me Here, and which was destroyed (along with her "tent") in the 2004 Momart warehouse fire.

In 1995 Freedman curated the show "Minky Manky" at the South London Gallery. Emin has said: "At that time Sarah (Lucas) was quite famous, but I wasn't at all. Carl said to me that I should make some big work as he thought the small-scale stuff I was doing at the time wouldn't stand up well. I was furious. Making that work was my way at getting back at him."[1] The result was Emin's famous "Tent" Everyone I have Ever Slept With 1963–1995, which was first exhibited in the show. It was a blue tent, appliqued with the names of everyone she has slept with. These included sexual partners, plus relatives she slept with as a child, her twin brother, and her two aborted children.

Although often talked about as a shameless exhibition of her sexual conquests, it was rather a piece about intimacy in a more general sense, although the title invites misinterpretation. The needlework which is integral to this work was used by Emin in a number of her other pieces. This piece was later bought by Charles Saatchi and included in the successful 1997 Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy of London. It then toured to Berlin and New York.

Freedman's interview with her appears in the catalogue. Other featured artists were Sarah Lucas, Gary Hume, Damien Hirst, Mat Collishaw, Gilbert & George, Critical Decor and Stephen Pippin. Emin now describes Freedman as "one of my best friends". He is now her tenant, living in a weaver's cottage at the back of her 450-year-old Huguenot house in Spitalfields, East London. Although these early events caused Emin to be well known in art circles, she was largely unknown by the public until she appeared on a Channel 4 television programme in 1997. It was an ostensibly serious debate show about that year's Turner Prize, and Emin appeared completely drunk (she has said this was caused by painkillers she was taking for a broken finger), swearing, insulting the other panel members and saying that she wanted to go home to her mum (she then left).

Two years later, in 1999, Emin was short listed for the Turner Prize herself and exhibited "My Bed" at the Tate Gallery. There was considerable media furore about this, particularly as the sheets of the bed were stained yellow, and the floor surrounding it had items from her room such as condoms, a pair of knickers with period stains and other detritus including a pair of slippers. The bed was presented as it had been when she had stayed in it for several days feeling suicidal because of relationship difficulties. One lady came to the exhibition with cleaning materials and had to be stopped from tidying it up. Two performance artists, Yuan Chai and Jian Jun Xi, jumped onto the bed with bare torsos in order to "improve" the work, which they thought had not gone far enough.

Another autobiographical work is the film CV Cunt Vernacular (1997), in which Emin narrates her story from childhood in Margate, through her student years, abortions and destruction of her early work. A later film, Top Spot (2004), named after a youth centre in Margate (but also a sexual reference), draws heavily on her teenage experiences. It was given an 18 certificate by the British Board of Film Censors owing to the instructive nature of a scene in which a teenage girl commits suicide. Emin responded by withdrawing the film from general distribution, though it has since been broadcast by the BBC. It was not a critical or commercial success.

Emin has also worked with neon lights. One such piece is You Forgot To Kiss My Soul which consists of those words in neon inside a neon heart-shape. One neon piece is made from the words "Is Anal Sex Legal" to complement another "Is Legal Sex Anal". Emin featured with her then boyfriend, Billy Childish, in "Quiet Lives" (11 mins. 1982. 16mm, written and directed by Eugene Doyen; once available with Cheated and Room for Rent in A Hangman Triple Bill, aka The Hangman Trilogy, Hangman Films) Quiet Lives is discussed in an article on Billy Childish's films in No Focus: punk on film (Headpress, 2006): "The implicit subtext of the insane love of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, the Moors murderers, and the public nature of the difficult relationship shared by Childish and Tracey Emin makes Quiet Lives a unique, parallel-text document."

Select Timeline

Select Exhibitions

• 2004 - Tracey Istanbulda, Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul, Turkey
• 2004 - Fear, War and The Scream, City Gallery Wellington, New Zealand
• 2004 - Printers Inc.: Recent British Prints, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester
• 2004 - The Other Flower Show, Victoria & Albert Museum, South Kensington, England
• 2003 - Menphis, Counter Gallery, London, England
• 2003 - Happiness: A Survival Guide for Art and Life, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
• 2003 - Just Love Me: Post-Feministic Art of the 1990's, Bergen Art Museum, Bergen
• 2003 - Europe Exists, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki
• 2003 - Micro/macro, The Budepest Kunsthalle, Budapest
• 2002 - This is Another Place, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
• 2002 - Ten Years, Tracey Emin, Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art, Amsterdam
• 2002 - Tracey Emin Showreel, The Genesis Cinema, London, England
• 2002 - Tracey Emin, Haus der Kunst, Munchen
• 2002 - Disturb, 1st Public School of Hydra, Hydra, Greece
• 2002 - Fushion Cuisine, Deste Foundation, Centre for Contemporary Art, Athens
• 2001 - You Forgot to Kiss My Soul, White Cube, London
• 2000 - What Do You Know About Love, Galerie Gebauer Berlin, Germany
• 2000 - Heads Up, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, FL
• 2000 - Love is a Strange Thing, Figure 1, London, England
• 1999 - Every Part of Me's Bleeding, Lehmann Maupin New York, NY
• 1998 - Tracey Emin, Galerie Gebauer Berlin, Germany
• 1998 - Pandaemonium, London Electronic Arts Gallery London, England
• 1998 - Sobasex (My Cunt is Wet with Fear), Sagacho Exhibition Space Tokyo, Japan
• 1998 - I Need Art Like I Need God, Gesellschaft fur Aktuelle Kunst Bremen, Germany
• 1998 - Tracey Emin, Galerie Phillippe Rizzo Paris, France
• 1998 - Encyclopedia, Turner & Runyon Dallas, TX
• 1998 - The Colony Room 50th Anniversary Art Exhibition, A22 Projects London, England
• 1998 - Emotion: Young British and American Art from the Goetz Collection, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany
• 1998 - Loose Threads, Serpentine Gallery London, England
• 1998 - Selections from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, FL
• 1998 - Life is a Bitch, De Appel Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• 1998 - La Biennale de Montreal, Center International D'Art Contemporain de Montrea Quebec, Canada
• 1998 - Real Life, Galleria S.A.L.E.S. Rome, Italy
• 1998 - English Rose in Japan, The Ginza Art Space Tokyo, Japan
• 1998 - Art from the UK: Angela Bulloch, Willie Doherty, Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas, Sam Taylor-Wood, Sammulung Goetz Munich, Germany
• 1998 - Made in London: An exhibition of works by London based artists made in the 1990's, Museu de Electricidade Lisboa, Portugal
• 1998 - Personal Effects, Spacex Gallery Exeter, England
• 1998 - The Human Factor, Achenbach Kunsthanden Dusseldorf, Germany
• 1998 - Sam Taylor-Wood, Tracey Emin, Gillian Wearing, Marc Quinn, Galerija Dante Marino Cettina Croatia
• 1998 - Live and Let Die, Apex Art C.P. New York, NY
• 1998 - Beach Life, Upper Street London, England
• 1998 - Pandemonium, The London Festival of Moving Images, LEA gallery London, England
• 1997 - History: Image-based work in Britain in the late 20th Century, The Ferens Art Gallery Kingston Upon Hill
• 1997 - Private Face. Urban Space, Old Gasworks Athens, Greece
• 1997 - between the devil and the deep (blue) sea, MUU Gallery Helsinki
• 1997 - Ca-Ca Poo-Poo, Kunstverein Koln, Germany
• 1997 - Package Holiday, Hydra Workshops Hydra
• 1997 - Time Out, Kunsthalle Nurnberg Nurnberg, Germany
• 1997 - Real Art for Real Women, Oil of Ulay
• 1997 - Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul Biennial Istanbul, Turkey
• 1997 - Tales from the City, Stills Gallery Edinburgh, Scotland
• 1997 - Craft, Richard Salmon London, England
• 1997 - Sensation, Royal Academy of Arts London, England
• 1997 - Such is Life, Serpentine Gallery Bookshop London, England
• 1997 - Summer Love, Fatouchi Cramer Gallery New York, NY
• 1997 - Dissolution, Laurent Dalaye Gallery London, England
• 1997 - Hypermnesiac Fabulations: The New British Art Scene, The Power Plant Toronto, Canada
• 1997 - Slight, Norwich Gallery Norwich
• 1997 - Kunst: Arbeit: 1st Presentation of the Banks Collection, Sudwest LB Stuttgart, Germany
• 1997 - Absolute Secret, Royal College of Art London, England
• 1997 - Urban Legends, Baden-Bahen Germany
• 1997 - I Need Art Like I Need God, South London Gallery London, England
• 1997 - Solo Exhibition, Moo Gallery Helsinki
• 1997 - Istanbul Biennial (performance), Pera Palace Hotel Turkey
• 1996 - It's not me that's crying, it's my soul, Galerie Mot & Van den Boogard Brussels, Germany
• 1996 - Exorcism of The Last Painting I Ever Made, Gallery Andreas Brandstrom, Stockholm
• 1996 - Tracey Emin, Habitat London, England
• 1996 - The Agression of Beauty, Galerie Arndt & Partner Berlin, Germany
• 1996 - Full House: Young British Art, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany
• 1996 - Sad, Gasworks London, England
• 1996 - Life/Live, Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris Paris, France
• 1996 - The Agression of Beauty, Galerie Arndt & Partner Berlin, Germany
• 1996 - Yerself is Steam, 85 Charlotte Street London, England
• 1996 - A Grapefruit in The World Park, Transmission Gallery Glasgow, England
• 1996 - Other Men's Flowers, Sarah Lucas, Aurel Scheibler Koln, Germany
• 1996 - Faustrecht der Freiheit, Kunstsammlung Gera Berlin, Germany
• 1996 - Co-operation, Sarah Lucas, Southampton City Art Gallery Southampton
• 1996 - Loosy, Grayson Perry, T, Galerie Phillipe Rizzo Paris, France
• 1995 - Brilliant! New Art from London, Walker Art Center Minneapolis, ID
• 1995 - Brill: Works on Paper by Brilliant Artists, Montgomery Glasgow Fine Art Minneapolis, ID
• 1995 - Mysterium Alltag, Tacita Dean, Gil, Kampnagel Hamburg, Germany
• 1995 - Milky Manky, South London Gallery London/Arnolfini, Bristol, England
• 1995 - Whistling Women, Chelsea Room Royal Festival Hall, London, England
• 1995 - The Friendly Village, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design Milwaukee, WI
• 1995 - Art for Aids, Galerie Nicoli Wainer Copenhagen, Denmark
• 1995 - Tracey Emin Museum, 221 Waterloo Road London, England
• 1994 - My Major Retrospective, White Cube/Jay Jopling London, England
• 1994 - Exploration of the Soul - Journey Across Amercia, Rena Bransten Los Angeles, CA
• 1994 - Art Cologne, Jay Jopling/White Cube London, England
• 1994 - Gramercy Park Hotel Art Fair, Gramercy Park Hotel Art Fair New York, NY
• 1994 - Karaoke and Football, Portikus Frankfurt, Germany
• 1994 - Other Men's Flowers, Joshua Compston/London Portfolio London, England
• 1994 - Hotel Carlton palace Chambre 763, Hotel Carlton Palace Paris, France
• 1993 - The Shop, 103 Bethnal Green Road London, England
• 1993 - From Army to Armani, Analix Gallery Geneva
• 1993 - Other Men's Flowers, IceBox Athena, Greece
• 1993 - I Confess, Nikolaj Contemporary Art Centre Copenhagen, Denmark

Select Artwork

• Poor Love (1999)
• Fuck You Eddy (1995)
• Sad Shower in New York (1995)
• Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made (1996)
• Purple Virgin (2004)
• Asleep Alone With Legs Open (2005)
• Reincarnation (2005)
• Masturbating (2006)
• Monument Valley (Grand Scale) (1995-97)
• I've Got It All (2000)
• Sometimes I Feel Beautiful (2000)
• The Last Thing I Said To You Is Don't Leave Me Here I (2000)
• The Last Thing I Said To You Is Don't Leave Me Here II (2000)
• The Last Thing I Said To You Is Don't Leave Me Here (The Hut) (1999)
• You Forgot To Kiss My Soul (2001)
• Anal Sex Legal (1998)
• Is Legal Sex Anal (1998)
• There's A Lot Of Money In Chairs (1994)
• Hellter Fucking Skelter (2001)
• Always Sorry (2005)
• As Always (2005)
• Quiet Lives (1982)
• Everyone I have Ever Slept With 1963-1995

Quotes

• "All the mistakes I've ever made in my life have been when I've been drunk. I haven't made hardly any mistakes sober, ever, ever."
• "I am fiercely independent and I probably wouldn't be if it wasn't for the way in which I was brought up."
• "I think children need a certain amount of rules. They need to brush their teeth, otherwise their teeth fall out, right? It is a kind of known thing. And children need to do their homework because it's part of their education."
• "I was sponsored by Bombay Sapphire Gin, so I used to always take a bottle of gin. And even when I didn't go out, I'd be sitting round drinking."
• "I'm a woman, I like my life, I'm lucky in what I do, and I'm very wealthy doing what I do. And no one gave me anything."
• "I'm not trying to find another thing that's wrong with me, but I'm such a nice person, and I have a couple of drinks and I'm really good fun and then I'm really not fun."
• "On the opening night there were a couple of thousand people and three television crews. I thought, Ohmigod, I've arrived!"
• "There's so much stuff said about me that's not true, so now if something is hurtful and wrong, I send an e-mail or letter immediately, saying, This is not true."
• "What is truth? Truth doesn't really exist. Who is going to judge whether my experience of an incident is more valid than yours? No one can be trusted to be the judge of that. When it comes to words, I have a uniqueness that I find almost impossible in terms of art-and it's my words that actually make my art quite unique."
• "If you've made seminal work, you never know when the next one is coming or where it's coming from. Most artists never make a seminal piece of art in their lives, and if you've made two, which I have, then I've done all right."
• "I often think that I don't really know anything, and then, when I think about my work, and my sewing, and about my blankets, I know what I'm doing: I can cut out a sentence in felt in five minutes; it would take most people that amount of time just to cut out one letter."
• "With my work, people say, Oh, the honesty and the truth behind it! But it's all edited, it's all calculated."

Publications

• Strangeland - by Tracey Emin, Sceptre (17 Oct 2005)
• The Art of Tracey Emin - by Chris Townsend, Mandy Merck, Thames & Hudson Ltd (Oct 2002)
• Tracey Emin (Modern Artists) - by Neal Brown, Tate Publishing (Sep 2006)
• Tracey Emin - by Carl Freedman, Honey Luard, Rizzoli International Publications (7 Nov 2006)

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