Tracey Emin has always had a strong sense of self and a healthy scepticism of art-world hype. The title of her first solo exhibition, at White Cube in 1993–94, was ‘My Major Retrospective’. This survey at Tate Modern, which Emin was closely involved in curating, really is a major retrospective (27 February–31 August). It begins with works from that White Cube show, including photographs of paintings Emin made in art school and destroyed in 1990, and ends with the artist’s return to painting after decades spent making installations and video work. In between are dozens of memorable works: the confessional video piece Why I Never Became a Dancer (1995); Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made (1996), which documents the weeks Emin spent painting, naked, in a Stockholm studio; and The Last of the Gold (2002), a quilt embroidered with an ‘A to Z of abortion’. Visitors will also see My Bed (1998), for which Emin was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1999.
Find out more from the Tate’s website.
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