Tracey Emin (2006) – Tracey Emin
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The most highly publicized of the infamous Young British Artists, Emin has stirred as much controversy as she has acclaim, being both highly personal and extremely original in her art. Emin’s work is engaging, titillating, disturbing, and startlingly confessional. One of her most famous pieces is Everyone I Ever Slept With 1963-1995, a tent appliquéd with names. Another notorious work, My Bed—the scene where she spent four days contemplating suicide—was exhibited at Tate Britain when the artist was short-listed for the Turner prize in 1999. Though denounced by conservative critics at the outset, Emin’s work has attracted serious critical attention for more than a decade. In the words of Art in America, “What brought Emin to prominence was shock value, but what keeps her work powerful as she continues is the strength and nuance of its form and content.” Compiled in close collaboration with the artist herself—and unprecedented in its scope—this is the definitive book on Emin, featuring drawings, paintings, sculptures, appliqués and embroideries, neon and video stills as well as her own writing. –from the publisher
See also: contemporary art – British art
Saw an exhibition of Young British Artists about 3 years ago. In the show was included a Tracy Emin embroidery on blanketing, with appliques that was neither an example of craftsmanship, innovation or expression, nor an example of an artistic object that will have a lasting place in the canon of the visual arts. Good thing this work is owned by the Tate gallery. At least while in storage in the Collections, no moths would be able to have at it. In a private collection it would eventually meet a natural end! Moths have just polished off an old Turkish prayer rug that I have carted around for 40 years – and it was a beaut!