Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin, CBE, RA is an English contemporary artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text and sewn appliqué. Once the "enfant terrible" of the Young British Artists in the 1980s, Tracey Emin is now a Royal Academician of the Royal Academy of Arts...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPop Artist
Date of Birth3 July 1963
children thinking would-be
My mum has never wanted me to have children. She thinks I would be destroying my life, even now.
determination thinking people
All the people in the late '80s and early '90s were really hell-bent on doing something for themselves, and they wouldn't take no for an answer. There was a lot of determination, and I was definitely part of that way of thinking.
thinking firsts married
I've never been married because, first of all, I don't think I've ever seriously been asked by anyone who I wanted to marry. And also I'm monogamous.
sex thinking feels
When I think about sex it makes me realise how alone I feel.
writing thinking ideas
The idea that I'm going to have to sit down to write some fiction where I'm going to have to think of a plot would really scare me, because it would come out a mess.
artist best careful honest
I should be careful what I say here, but I don't think I'm visually the best artist in the world. I've got to be honest about this.
bronze figure good looked square wrote
In New York, working at the foundry, I was making these little figures. I desperately would like to make big figures, but I just can't do it; my hands don't do it. We were talking about making bronze plinths, and then we made one, a square one. I wrote on it, then I put a little figure on top, and it just looked really good. It worked.
means prices rarely secondary work
My work rarely comes up in secondary market, so it means that my prices stay low.
people
I'd like to think I inspire young people to be creative.
four moral three
With any story I write, I could actually write it from three or four different perspectives, which would end with a completely different moral at the end.
life matter sells ten work
One thing about an artist, it doesn't matter how much your work sells for in your life, it's going to sell for ten times more than that after you're dead, and that's what you have to protect.
against committee decided fit happened millions time within work
It's happened time and time again, but the committee has always decided against it-the work was too conservative or didn't fit within the budget; there are millions of different reasons.
until
I didn't have an exhibition anywhere until I was 30. My first exhibition was at 30, and then for my first show in America, I'm 50. It's kind of all right: I'm just a slow burner.
plateau women
Women, at 50, are on a plateau with their careers, but later they ascend.