The largest-ever exhibition of works by the UK artist Tracey Emin is due to open at Tate Modern in London next year, and will include more than 90 works including the headline-hitting installation My Bed (1998). <\/p>\n
A Second Life will encompass neon, sculpture, paintings, videos and textiles spanning 40 years. According to a Tate statement, the show will demonstrate \u201cher uncompromising confessional approach to sharing experiences of love, trauma and personal growth\u201d.<\/p>\n
The show will begin by presenting works from Emin\u2019s first solo exhibition at White Cube gallery in London,\u00a0My Major Retrospective\u00a01982-93, which opened in 1993. White Cube says the show \u201ccomprised over a hundred objects Emin had collected over the years, in what constituted a continuing act of almost obsessive assemblage\u201d. White Cube items included in the Tate exhibition will include small-scale photographs of Emin\u2019s paintings made at art school in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
The section on early works will also include the autobiographical video Why I Never Became a Dancer (1995), drawing on her adolescence in the UK seaside town of Margate. According to Xavier Hufkens Gallery, which represents Emin, in the video \u201cthe artist speaks over these images, explaining that she gave up school at 13 to hang out in caf\u00e9s and bars, or drink cider on the beach.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer favourite pastime, she says, was sex: \u2018It was something you could just do, and it was for free\u2019. She goes on to chronicle her routine, sleeping with men much older than herself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Margate will feature prominently throughout the exhibition. \u201cEmphasising the turbulent years she spent there,\u00a0Mad Tracey From Margate: Everybody\u2019s Been There\u00a01997 lays bare her most intimate thoughts through hand stitched phrases, letters and drawings,\u201d says Tate. The wooden sculpture It’s Not the Way I Want\u00a0to Die\u00a0(2005) is based on the rollercoaster at Margate\u2019s famous Dreamland funfair.<\/p>\n
The exhibition will also address the artist\u2019s experience of abortion, in pieces such as How It Feels (1996). \u201cThe film gives a difficult, yet empowering account of the physical and psychological dimensions of refusing motherhood,\u201d says Xavier Hufkens. The Last of the Gold\u00a0(2002), displayed for the first time, is emblazoned with an \u201cA to Z of abortion\u201d guide.<\/p>\n
My Bed, the sculpture comprising condoms, pillows and a duvet, forms the centrepiece of the Tate show. When the work was installed at Tate Britain in 2015, Emin said: \u201cWhen I\u2019m installing the bed it\u2019s kind of really sad and very depressing because I\u2019m actually going into a time capsule of my past. All of the things that are round the bed no longer relate to my life at all, but I\u2019ve got to say I\u2019d be really stupid to be unhappy about this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emin\u2019s \u201csecond life\u201d is explored in the final section, through the artist\u2019s recent paintings and sculptures, such as Ascension\u00a0(2024), which reflect her philosophy following major surgeries for bladder cancer. \u201cI feel this show will be a benchmark for me. A moment in my life when I look back and go forward. A true celebration of living,\u201d says Emin in a statement.<\/p>\n
A Second Life, Tate Modern, London, 26 February 2026-31 August<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The largest-ever exhibition of works by the UK artist Tracey Emin is due to open at Tate Modern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88,9543,16908,89686],"class_list":{"0":"post-144381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-exhibitions","14":"tag-tate","15":"tag-tracey-emin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}