Tracey Emin ( 3 July 1963) CBE is a well known Contemporary Artist born In Croydon, London UK. Her interests lie within Conceptual Art and confessional artwork.  This year she has an exhibition called The Memory of Your Touch, 8 September – 21 October 2017 displayed at the Xavier Huftkens in Brussels, Belgium.  

Her painting “Mother” is an acrylic painting which depicts a body, this is not clear or defined as she only has used minimal brush strokes to achieve it and the form of the body appears to be in line art. She has unquestionably left the viewer to come to terms themselves with this painting. It is set on a white background with underlying tones of pale pink with darker tones of crimson throughout the lower half. The outline of the body itself is created with black acrylic, which appears very fine. This really gives this piece of work a sense of freedom and imagination for the audience. I also find that the use of only two colour, which are very diverse to one other and aesthetically pleasing.

Emin allows you to question this painting. Is she remembering someone’s touch or is she mourning someone. The questions are endless. I believe though that it links nicely with the work of (Cy Twombly ,1928-2011). It is a fine example of abstract expressionism in the contemporary world of Art. His influence inspired the autobiographical and confessional medium of work that is still alive today in work by Emin.

Theory that underpins Emin’s work is conceptualism, feminism and abstract expressionism. I  focused on the sociological theory of Fouclaut (1926-1984). (Foucault, 1985).

Emin’s art reflects a notion of authenticity with feminism and political democracy through storytelling and truth telling. If you were to apply the theory of the French Philosopher, Michel Fouclault (1926-1984) you could see that his principles form part of her storytelling through emotion. His theory of power and the struggle with time known as “Foucauldian” displays his theory of abstract theoretical issues of power, knowledge, sexuality and selfhood. (Horrocks, 1997). Emin utilises this theory through her work of emotion, sexuality and exposure of problems and dysfunctional issues in society. This is a consistent theme throughout her work, which I feel is clearly shown time and time again in her work.( Harrison and Wood, 2003)

Bibliography

Foucault, Michel 1985 (1984) The use of Pleasure: The history of sexuality, Vol 2 translated from French by Robert Hurley, Pantheon, New York.

Harrison Charles and Wood Paul, (2003)  Art in Theory 1900-2000. Blackwell Publishing.

Horrocks, Chris and Jevtic, Zoran (1997) Foucault for Beginners, Icon Books, Cambridge.

Standard Evening (July 2014)