The first time I saw Tracey Emin’s My Bed was at the Saatchi Gallery in County Hall when my daughter Helen was around 10 years old.
She stood mesmerised, studying the detritus of the artist’s life: empty vodka bottle, Marlboro Lights, fluffy dog, grubby moccasins, crumpled sheets.
“I remember it being quite eye-opening,” she recalls now and that is perhaps the truest understatement for the complete new retrospective exhibition Tracey Emin: A Second Life, at the Tate Modern on London’s Bankside.
Emin is an artist whose subject is herself: her life, her body, her grief, her overwhelming optimism, the visceral universality of being a woman and here we see 40 years of craft, ranging across paintings, video, installation, textiles and sculpture in the largest presentation of her work every shown.
It is powerful and shocking, often devastating, often humorous, always blisteringly honest. The majority of the crowd on the day I visited were female and clearly also mesmerised as we followed Emin’s unorthodox life out from the beach and backstreets of Margate into the public gaze and back again.
Why It Matters
This landmark exhibition traces 40 years of challenging contemporary art, using the female body and life experiences to explore pain, passion and healing. Not to be missed.
Practical Details
Tracey Emin: A Second Life runs 27 February to 31 August 2026. Tickets cost £20, with free entry for Tate Members and £5 for Tate Collective (16–25s).
Relaxed Hours are on the third Tuesday of each month from 10–11am. The gallery is open until 9pm every Friday and Saturday.
