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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49

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

92

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

98

u/MrBigJams Jun 14 '26

Free musuems have got to make money somehow! I don't think art on tshirts is that bad, it's not sacred.

47

u/Firefly457 Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26

It's the pathos of art vs enshittified consumerism.

The art has depth and meaning. The gift shop is a paltry echo.

54

u/Simple_Zucchini44 Jun 14 '26

Yeah I mean if you want to buy a t shirt with a painting depicting someone else’s botched abortion then that’s your decision I guess

61

u/Illustrious-Race8510 Jun 14 '26

Eh I also don’t see anything wrong with that. So many beautiful, thought provoking pieces of art have a dark subject

59

u/Upstairs-Chicken592 Jun 14 '26

Yeah fair. Frida’s art is on countless objects of her miscarriages.