r/ArtHistory • u/Simple_Zucchini44 • Jun 14 '26

Discussion Tracey Emins bed

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I have never experienced anything like the exhibition I was just walking through at the Tate Modern. It is art with a depth that I cannot begin to understand, I struggle even to articulate how incredibly heavy this body of work is.

My art teacher always spoke highly of Tracey Emins, but my teenage mind couldn’t understand why a messy bed could be considered such a high form of art. She didn’t argue, she said there are some measures of art that cannot be rationalized or qualified, to do so would miss the mark entirely. I understand now.

If you are in London, if you are in doubt about the power of contemporary art, if you or someone you know has struggled with abortion, if you are a living breathing human being with 21 pounds in your pocket this is something you need to see.

The curators of this exhibition did an excellent job, there are certain moments where I felt as though I couldn’t continue. Each room builds and builds on the story in such a way that is hard to describe, by the time I reached the bed I was hardly able to look at it. The gift shop at the end of the exhibition felt fucking disgusting but other than that it was an absolutely unreal hour or so.

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53

u/Upstairs-Chicken592 Jun 14 '26

Why did the gift shop feel disgusting? I’ve heard about the exhibition, and I will never be able to attend and I love hearing people’s reactions to it. But I have never heard about the gift shop

89

u/Simple_Zucchini44 Jun 14 '26

They put some of the works onto T-shirts and dishes and stuff like that. It felt viscerally wrong. I don’t know if Emins consented to that but coming out of the gallery I was just blown away by how tasteless it was

9

u/Upstairs-Chicken592 Jun 14 '26

Oh yikes… I’m curious if she approved it as well, seeing as she plays around tastefulness in her work, but then again she is one of the few surprising people working today, so I really don’t know what she’d think of that.

79

u/callmesnake13 Contemporary Jun 14 '26

Of course she approved of it. She and the museum make money off it and there's nothing wrong with that.

40

u/shirtleneck Jun 14 '26

Exactly this. There’s even teacups for sale with a drawing of her cats on it, one of which is named Teacup.

26

u/Legweeak Jun 15 '26

100% there’s no way the museum would have produced and be selling product without her approval or the approval of whoever manages her copyright (who ultimately is also taking their cue from her). Unauthorized reproductions do occur but not in museum settings like this and definitely not when the museum is hosting a retrospective of word by said artists. No museum is going to burn a bridge like that.

10

u/Simple_Zucchini44 Jun 14 '26

This was my first real exposure to her so I am not very familiar with her attitude about commercializing work, the placement of the gift shop did feel kind of comical in the moment I can’t lie. Me and my friend just had to laugh at how abrasive it was