I had did a two hours dash from my Hastings visit to Margate on my way home, to see the latest Tracy Emin works (6 hours in the car - I could have gone to St Ives). I've never been convinced and this didn't help. It took me about 10-15 mins to see it. More large scrappy drawings, neons and gouches, monoprints and sculptures mainly of nude women with legs splayed and hands on groin - will she ever grow up and get over her past? Do we? Since she's been made Profesor of Drawing at the RCA I thought I should see if there is some lovely flow to her lines I that might inspire me, and there was a little. But there was also the ugly, the disturbing and the scrappy writing.
The 'prettiest' was the tapestries of yes, again, women with no heads, legs open and hands to groins. I looked close, she surely didn't produce them did she? - and no she didn't. A college did it to her design.
I could be wrong - as I went into the hallway, looking at further revealling (erotic?) drawings and rough watercolours of provocative nude women I detected an improvement - but then I noticed they were private works by Rodin (his Kiss is on loan downstairs in the gallery) and J. W.Turner placed here for context. The programme states that in the history of art where female eroticism, sex and the nude are usually presented by men, she presents it all from a female perspective. I find hers less pretty and more confronting. Maybe that's the point.
The reason for her title - I heard her explain it on TV a few months ago - not worth repeating - like Hirst, she's a story spinner in order to explain her work to us and herself - I rarely find it convincing. It's her first solo exhibition in Margate where she grew up, and to which she is committed to help develop.
I really felt some of her drawings were taking the piss but I still can't completely dismiss her.
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| Tracy Emin - Rose Virgin Tapestry |
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| Tracy Emin - Tapestry |
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| Tracy Ein - Neon |
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| Tracy Emin - Breakfast at the Grotto (I assume the Margate Grotto) |
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| Tracy Emin - She Lay on Blue |
It wasn't a waste. I stopped in at my fav Margate seasfront Fish and Chip shop - great value.
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| ShirleyG - Fish & Chips Half Eaten, Erotically. What's that hole? |
I really have no experience of Emin's work, having left the UK after she came to prominence. I don't get why the neon thing is art. Did she actually make it herself? See, I just don't understand that type of art at all, which I always put down to a failure on my part.
ReplyDeleteI have seen Rodin's work numerous times. Alan lived within walking distance of the Rodin museum in Paris, so we went a few times, plus of course his work is well represented in a number of major galleries. Have you ever seen The Burghers of Calais, which is somewhere along the Thames - the embankment possibly?
As for that last bit of erotic art by someone called Shirley G, I have my thoughts about what that hole may be, especially given the fishy smell!!!