One of the UK’s most famous artists has filled several rooms in the Tate Modern with a wide range of really quite uncomfortable art.
This is the Tracey Emin blockbuster. An exhibition that will sell out regardless of what anyone says about it, because it’s a celebrity artist doing what she does best – painting and talking about herself. It’s not that she doesn’t have a remarkable and troubling story to tell, but if your entire art is about a genuinely hard life, then it’s not pleasant art to hang on the wall.
The exhibition, packed with people, is also a hard space to navigate, especially with several tight pinchpoints, as if the artist wants the viewer to feel uncomfortable while visiting.
Opening with replicas of artworks she created in art school, and later destroyed, the exhibition is mainly a collection of very large sketches, a few paintings and tapestries – and if you can get to them through the throng, intimate letters.
A rather odd railway fills one room, and yes, that infamous bed is here.
Maybe I missed something, but I walked in wanting to be excited to see the work of one of the UK’s most famous living artists and walked out going, well, yeah?
The imagery is brutal, both in topic and style, but candidly, there’s not much here. There are lots of individual pieces, but it breaks down into barely half a dozen core topics. When you’ve seen the naked self-portrait sketch, the rest of the room filled with more of the same seems superfluous.
I think that’s why I left with a bit of a shug, as somehow I had walked through several rooms, but felt that I had really only seen a handful of works of art.
The exhibition, Tracey Emin, is at Tate Modern until the end of August
Standard Ticket: £20
Child 12-18: £5
Under 12s – Valid With Adult Ticket Holders Only: Free
Concessions: £19
National Art Pass: £10
Universal or Pension Credit: £5
Best to book tickets in advance as they’re selling out. Details here.