Jane Park, Contributing Photographer

On March 29, Dame Tracey Emin’s latest exhibition “I Loved You Until The Morning” was officially opened to the public in the newly renovated Yale Center for British Art, the first North American museum to foreground the artist’s paintings. 

The opening was followed by a public conversation between Emin and YCBA Director Martina Droth in the Lecture Hall on April 3. 

“Tracey Emin’s remarkable 30-year career has made her one of the leading artistic voices of our time,” said Droth. “Her pioneering works have explored subjects of the most intimate aspects of femininity, sexuality … and her own experiences as a woman.”

Droth curated the exhibition in collaboration with Emin and her studio’s creative director, Harry Weller. They chose 19 of the artist’s large-scale paintings along with a selection of drawings, several sculptural works and a neon installation in the entrance of the iconic Louis I. Kahn building. 

On view concurrently with Emin’s exhibition is “J.M.W. Turner: Romance and Reality.” According to Droth, it’s significant that Emin — who is one of Britain’s leading contemporary artists — is  paired alongside Turner, whose works have been highly regarded in British art history. Turner (1775-1851) worked in Margate, the English seaside town where Emin grew up and works. 

Emin’s paintings have a raw, emotionally expressive energy that maintains a tension between figuration and abstraction. Although Emin is the subject of her paintings, her face is obscured in works such as “Black Cat” (2008) and “Don’t Ask me to be like you” (2024). 

In these self-portraits, the lines of her body seem to quiver as she establishes form in loose brush strokes, which become more decisive. She also overpaints what was previously rendered until she feels a work is complete, according to Weller. 

“Her paintings are universal. We didn’t want to have an explanation of what the paintings meant,” said Weller. “That’s why some of the faces have been erased. Yes, it’s Tracey within her paintings. But at the same time … you could see yourself in the painting. You could see your mother in that painting. You could see your daughter in that painting.” 

Throughout her life, Emin has experienced considerable trauma: rape, two painful abortions and bladder cancer during the pandemic. 

The cancer, Weller pointed out, resulted in the need of a stoma and urostomy bag, traces of which can be seen in “And It was Love” (2023). 

“She has never flinched from addressing challenging themes,” said Droth. 

In addition to revealing Emin’s physical vulnerability, “And It was Love” depicts pleasure in receiving her boyfriend’s act of cunnilingus. That work is in dialogue with “I Followed you to the end” (2024), depicting the aftermath of the couple’s bitter break up — a moment of anguish in which the solitary artist laments her passion with the inclusion of text.   

The two paintings are about the same lover. 

A multidisciplinary artist, Emin was a prominent member of the Young British Artists, or YBAs, who burst onto the cultural scene in the 1990s — a group that included, among others, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Chris Ofili and Gillian Wearing. 

In 2007, Emin was chosen to represent Britain in the Venice Biennale; she was the second woman in the history of the British Pavilion to be offered a solo show. All 19 of the canvas works in “I Loved You Until The Morning” are from that period to the present.                         

During the talk, Emin also mentioned America’s current political environment and the significance of art in this time. On her taxi ride from the airport to Manhattan, Emin said that she had asked the driver for his thoughts on U.S. current events. He replied that he was scared to answer. 

“I think there is no other time in history where art and creativity and freedom of speech and individuality is more important,” said Emin. 

“Don’t Ask me to be like you” (2024) depicts a nude female figure in a wash of gray, as text surrounds her upturned head. The figure stands in front of a red field of color overpainted with pink, while aggressive black brushstrokes seem to push her forward in the compressed space. All the color drips to the bottom of the canvas. 

One YCBA visitor, Daniela Woldenberg ’27, said that this work speaks powerfully about the “need for personal agency.” 

“I like the text at the top. It feels like the inner thoughts she’s voicing,” said Woldenberg. “The inclusion of text in a painting is an invitation to the audience to engage with it more thoroughly. But at the same time the content of the message is, ‘I don’t want to be like you … I want my space.’” 

Emin’s relationship with America is complicated. Early in her career, she wanted critical acceptance here because she viewed America as the “epicenter of the artworld.” With a reputation for drinking, partying and unapologetically speaking her mind, she worried that critics would not take her work seriously. 

Meanwhile, her male YBA counterparts got a pass on the same behavior. 

In conversation with Jerry Saltz, senior art critic for New York Magazine, she once declared, “I was scared of being rejected. So, I rejected all of you first, all of America first. I pushed you all away.” 

With the YCBA exhibition to her credit — along with the show’s positive critical reception — it seems that Emin and America have finally accepted one another, a reconciliation that will please her significant following in this country. 

“It’s important, and it’s good to permit me for my first museum show in America to be associated with such a strong educational platform,” said Emin. “Because it means that people will realize that my work is serious, and whatever they thought about me previously, they will have to rethink again because I’ve been invited here.” 

“Tracey Emin: I Loved You Until The Morning” will be on view on the second floor of YCBA through Aug. 10, 2025.