Tracey Emin Speaks with Jerry Saltz at NYAA
Every part of me kept loving you — 2018
Last week, we had the great luck to attend a talk at the New York Academy of Art with Tracey Emin, interviewed by writer and critic Jerry Saltz.
It was wonderful to see her in such an intimate setting, and to hear about her work and her life. This was particularly true as she’s just spent a few years ill, battling cancer. Thankfully she’s ‘in the clear’ as she now says. But it was a unique and inspiring experience to get to hear her talk about life and how these hard times affected her work and her outlook. Her goals and her own place in the pantheon of art.
Success Through Vulnerability
Emin shares a special kinship with Edvard Munch. They were both never afraid to live through and express pain; to share their trauma.
In 2021, Emin put together a show, Lonliness Of The Soul at Munch Museet in Oslo as well as The Royal Academy in London, that included many works from Emin and a few she selected herself from Munch.
Emin spoke as well about her deep admiration of Louise Bourgeois, and getting to meet and collaborate with her. About how vibrant energized she was, how productive she could be, even in her 80’s. She told of her intention to keep working hard as long as she could. Bouyed by the thought that female artists can peak and stay productive for a long time. It was a combination of urgency that she knew she would eventually run out of time, and excitement that she would be able to remain active as she escaped cancer.
Emin in her Margate Studio. Photo Maureen M Evans
What Can Art Do?
I want a painting to scare me. I want a painting to show me something that I don’t know.
As when you go to a fortune teller, to find out things you don’t know, not those that you do.
For fifty-thousand years art did things: cast spells, raise the dead, raise armies…
It’s only these last 200 years we’ve lost touch with that”
— Tracey Emin (paraphrased)
Climbing the Mountain
She spoke of coming back from her cancer diagnosis and being completely energized. So happy to exist, to be able to experience the world and do her work.
She also told a story of her childhood, being a cross country runner at 13 years old. And after a long training run, she would arrive back at the school for the last part of the run, 3 laps around a track. Emin said she was always good at going really fast at the end, even after the long slog of a run. This was her special skill. And this is the way she sees her life now.
Emin has been through a lot, she’s reaching the last legs of the journey, but she has so much enthusiasm, so much speed to carry her through the rest of her time on the earth, of her time as a working artist.
And we are certainly excited that she’s back in the race.
—I&D
