Tracey Emin’s bed to travel to artist’s hometown, Margate

Date
1 August 2017
Above

Tracey Emin, My Bed, 1998 © Tracey Emin. All rights reserved, DACS 2014. Photo credit: Courtesy The Saatchi Gallery, London / Photograph by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd

Used condoms, fag ends, period blood, a slew of emptied vodka bottles: in 1999, Tracey Emin’s My Bed shocked the media and earned the artist a place in the Turner Prize shortlist.

The memory of a breakdown which rendered the artist bed-bound for over a week in a Waterloo council flat 19 years ago, the artwork has since become one of Tracey Emin’s most celebrated artworks, in 2014 selling for over £2.5 million to a private collector.

Today it has been announced that this autumn, Emin will return to Margate, where she grew up, to show My Bed alongside paintings by former Margate resident J.M.W. Turner.

Victoria Pomery, director of Turner Contemporary commented: “we’re eagerly awaiting the arrival of My Bed and the responses it will spark. The work, now almost 20 years old, was shown by Tracey Emin for her nomination for the Turner Prize exhibition in 1999. Ahead of the Turner Prize coming to Turner Contemporary in 2019, there couldn’t be a more pertinent moment to display this work.”

Tracey Emin, My Bed / JMW Turner will be exhibited at the Turner Contemporary, Margate, 13 October – 14 January 2018.

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About the Author

Bryony Stone

Bryony joined It's Nice That as Deputy Editor in August 2016, following roles at Mother, Secret Cinema, LAW, Rollacoaster and Wonderland. She later became Acting Editor at It's Nice That, before leaving in late 2018.

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