Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #101413 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Synopsis
The career of Tracey Emin, one of the best known contemporary British artists, has become a potent symbol of the relationship between art and celebrity in our time. When it was exhibited in London at the Tate in 1999, her now notorious installation My Bed was denounced by conservative critics as a national scandal, but this and her other work have continued to attract ever larger audiences. Whether storming drunkenly out of live television debates, talking tearfully about her abortions or modelling evening gowns for Vivienne Westwood, Tracey Emin makes headlines. Yet if Emin is now universally recognized as a media phenomenon, her work has also begun to attract serious critical attention. In The Art of Tracey Emin, distinguished critics from Britain and the United States explore her various artistic influences, for example Edvard Munch and Egon Schiele, and the separate parts of her oeuvre - her installations (most notably My Bed and Everyone I Have Ever Slept With), her film and video works, and her monoprints. The final essay takes the form of an interview with the artist.

Customer Reviews

Tracey Emin is a Star

Tracey Emin is a star! I have all her books and though this is not my favorite it still offers a wonderful introduction to the work of one of the truly great feminine artists of our age. As to the the reviewer who that claims it `lacks Billy Childish' well that's because he obviously was not an influence. A great book about a great lady.

Lacks Billy Childish
Whilst this book has some interesting information and insights into Tracey Emins working practice, quite how the authors can omit Emin's relationship with the artist Billy Childish in the early 80's is frankly beyond me. Tracey has said in the past that Childish "was a major influence on my life." And Tracey worked selling books on Childish's small press Hangman Books for several years. The book is worth owning but it does make one question the level of research that has actually gone into other areas of the book and the final edit.

Intelligent and Informative
This book is a collection of essays about Emin's work. The preface says it all when it argues that it is time for people to stop discussing whether Emin's work is 'art', that has been clearly established by the fact that whether you like it or not, she is one of the most successful british artists of all time with a world wide reputation as a worthy artist. Her acceptance into the Royal Academy last year might help quell some of this criticism.
This book accepts that Emin's work is art and actually makes some headway towards discussing what kind of art, where in the history and tradition of art it falls and what it is saying other than the usual branding of it being 'confessional'. It does deal with Emin's celebrity, which of course is always an issue in understanding who she is and what she is trying to say, but it is not all it deals with.
Some of the essays were more interesting than others. Some seemed a little too theoretical, and actually spent more time discussing other artists and concepts than Emin. Others were really useful and provided new angles and insights into her work which were fascinating and relevant. The standout essays for me were the ones dealing with her monoprints, the ones about her films and the interview with the artist herself.
This book cements the fact that there is more to Emin than meets the eye. It's time to get over the 'I could do it myself' issue. She has been an established artist for years now, and let's face it: 'You didn't do it yourself did you?'So get over it and use this book to learn to appreciate her art as art.