I didn't have an exhibition anywhere until I was 30. My first exhibition was at 30, and then for my first show in America, I'm 50. It's kind of all right: I'm just a slow burner. Tracey Emin More Quotes by Tracey Emin More Quotes From Tracey Emin There should be something revelatory about art. Tracey Emin creative doors art Art is like a lover whom you run away from but who comes back and picks you up. Tracey Emin lovers running art Most people don't do something seminal. I've done it twice: with my tent and my bed. Picasso did it with Cubism. Tracey Emin bed people art When I have an exhibition, I usually arrange it so that if people want to, they can spend two hours there. That way, people who like it don't feel cheated when they go. I want them to walk into the exhibition space and look low and at other levels and angles. The same with emotions. I want them to be emotionally manipulated, to come out feeling something. I want them to laugh, smile, feel sad. Even if they feel angry, that's okay. Tracey Emin feelings laughing people What's really good about the word 'art' is that 'art' is a word like 'love,' or 'god,' or whatever. It transcends so many things. Tracey Emin like-love art-is art Have you ever longed for someone so much, so deeply that you thought you would die? That your heart would just stop beating? I am longing now, but for whom I don't know. My whole body craves to be held. I am desperate to love and be loved. I want my mind to float into another's. I want to be set free from despair by the love I feel for another. I want to be physically part of someone else. I want to be joined. I want to be open and free to explore every part of them, as though I were exploring myself. Tracey Emin despair mind heart When it comes to words I have a uniqueness that I find almost impossible in art – and it's my words that actually make my art quite unique. Tracey Emin unique impossible art I like poor materials. I couldn't see myself making a bronze sculpture - it's not me. I like neon, because it's moving constantly and like drawing. The chemicals going through the neon turns me on really - it's sexy. I like fabrics, but one of the main things with objects is that I really have to love them before I can use them. I have to have the object around me a long time. The little chairs I used in my last White Cube show are ones that my dad bought for me. A sort of a psychometry with objects and things. It's like the pieces I've made are my things. Tracey Emin sexy dad moving There are things going on in galleries recently that have shocked me. What I'm going to say is really controversial, but what I find the most provocative is the commerciality of art in general. And the fact that a lot of people have forgotten what the meaning of art is and what the intention behind it is. Tracey Emin forgotten people art I've worked really hard. I've made three pieces of seminal art in my life. If I died tomorrow, I'd be remembered for making them. There are a lot of artists who, no matter how hard they work in their lives, will never make anything seminal. Tracey Emin pieces three art What is truth? Truth doesn't really exist. Who is going to judge whether my experience of an incident is more valid than yours? No one can be trusted to be the judge of that. Tracey Emin incidents trusted judging The reason why I'm popular as an artist in this country is because it suits the psyche of the nation at this time. Ten years ago, my work wouldn't have had any currency, any popularity at all. Before in this country, you had to be accepted. You had to be part of the group. Now it's probably more trendy to have a problem. Tracey Emin problem artist country The words went round and round and round in my mind and my body, until I knew they were no longer my words but something that had been carved into my heart. And now my soul was crying. Tracey Emin soul mind heart I feel physically ill if I don't make work, I don't create. I don't feel very good. I don't feel right, I feel wrong. Tracey Emin feels-right very-good ill There is nothing difficult about my work, and people get to hear it from me. Tracey Emin difficult people Criticism on my works is like this: you've worked hard all of your life, you went to Oxford, and you've done this and that, and you're an art critic. Your job is to unravel the "secret" or whatever, and you come across an entity like me. It's going to piss you off. Because there's no great secret, what you see is what you get, and anyone can understand what I'm doing. So, it's almost like I make this critic-person redundant, just by my attitude, and they resent me for that. Tracey Emin secret attitude art I found that life has to be edited to continue. Tracey Emin edited found Being an artist and having to be responsible for the art that you make is really quite challenging, and as you get older it becomes more and more difficult. Tracey Emin aging challenges art All the mistakes I've ever made in my life have been when I've been drunk. I haven't made hardly any mistakes sober, ever, ever. Tracey Emin drunk mistake life I'm not opposed to commerce, even though I'm an artist. Tracey Emin commerce artist
