We round up the reviews for the British artist’s latest exhibition on display until the 31st August.
The Guardian: **** ” This isn’t a big, cold, white-walled celebration of her work, it’s way more intimate, dark and claustrophobic.”
The Arts Desk: **** “In many ways, it’s the story of Emin’s life and art. She can’t draw for toffee, for instance, yet she persists and there’s something compelling about the jagged lines portraying women in various states of naked despair. Their spiky inarticulacy suggests emotional trauma far more effectively than “good” draughtsmanship ever could. Enlarged and embroidered onto blankets, they acquire a needle sharpness that emphasises the woman’s vulnerability.”
Nigel IP.com: “Curated by Jessica Baxter, the exhibition is refreshingly light. The highly selective list of works feel representative of her overarching oeuvre without feeling repetitive, including never-before-seen pieces like the quilt The Last of the Gold (2002). By avoiding thematic texts per room, the experience feels like one continuous journey through 40 years of creativity and life experience, which includes a corridor displaying new photographs of the stoma she now lives with following major surgery with bladder cancer. I’m generally very impressed by the rhythm of the hang.”
City Am: **** “Emin’s body of work – much of it concerned with her body – is so raw and personal that Second Life feels less a retrospective of the art than it is a retrospective of the artist.”
The Telegraph: ** “If only Emin’s often twee and repetitive work were as charismatic as she is in person.”
Londonist: **** “A Second Life is maybe guilty of under-curation; while you can tune into bonus audio, the panels are sparser than is ideal. A flick through the official exhibition book in the gift shop immediately reveals things it would have been to nice to see up on the walls. To quote Emin from that book, as she speaks about her studio: “So my second life is this, now. I sometimes think I died, and this is heaven.” Her studio, it goes without saying, is in Margate.”
The Standard: *** “There is one exception in the final room and that is her Crucifixion — another version featured in last year’s Royal Academy Summer Show. It too is raw and poignant, and it does convey the emotion appropriate to Christ on the cross. If she could go further in that direction, maybe she might take herself out of herself. It’s probably too late now.”
The Independent: **** “Britain’s greatest living female artist? Definitely ·”
The Upcoming: ***** “For an artist once vilified by parts of the press and general public alike, Dame Tracey Emin has come a long way. Her groundbreaking, visceral work can be said to be leaving an indelible mark on the landscape of British Art. The Tate’s hotly anticipated exhibition does not disappoint, throwing a spotlight on the artist’s unapologetically human approach and raw engagement with what it means to be alive. In her authenticity, she somehow manages to turn trauma into triumph.”
Time Out: ***** “With its unflinching examinations of some of society’s greatest ills, A Second Life inspires a myriad of emotions – despair, anger, hope and amusement, to name but a few – that are liable to leave you feeling exhausted by the time you emerge from the final room. But you will also be struck by the realisation that ‘Mad Tracey from Margate’ is truly a force to be reckoned with, and a master of reflecting society back at itself, warts and all.”
To book tickets for the exhibition visit: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/tracey-emin