Emin’s huge Tate survey
Tracey Emin’s largest‑ever retrospective, 'A Second Life,' is open at Tate Modern now and runs through Aug. 31 — it’s being billed as her biggest career show. The exhibition is curated by Maria Balshaw, Alvin Li and Jess Baxter, and comes as Emin’s old London studio is being redeveloped into homes and commercial units. (dezeen.com) (hyperallergic.com) (timeout.com)
Tate’s own materials say the survey brings together more than 100 works across painting, video, textiles, neon, sculpture and installation and is staged in the museum’s Eyal Ofer Galleries with Gucci as a lead partner. (tate.org.uk) The show reunites landmark installations including Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made (1996) and the Turner‑Prize‑famous My Bed (1998), and features the quilt The Last of the Gold (2002) — emblazoned with an “A to Z of abortion” — on public display for the first time. (tate.org.uk) Recent work made after Emin’s cancer treatment appears throughout the exhibition: the 2024 bronze Ascension is shown alongside stills from a new documentary that includes images of the stoma Emin now lives with, while the display closes with a suite of newly ambitious large‑scale paintings. (tate.org.uk) My Bed’s complex ownership history is noted in press coverage — the piece has circulated through major private collectors and long‑term loans before arriving at Tate for this survey — underscoring how the work’s market and museum journeys have shaped its public profile. (dailyartmagazine.com) Early critical responses have mixed emphasis: Hyperallergic described the show’s effect as diary‑like and intensely personal, Frieze framed the title A Second Life as “cannily ambiguous,” and The Telegraph called parts of the retrospective “patchy.” (hyperallergic.com) Tate lists additional backers for the exhibition — the Tracey Emin Exhibition Supporters Circle, Tate Members, Tate International Council and Tate Americas Foundation — and credits Farrow & Ball for supplying paint used in the galleries. (tate.org.uk)
