The Royal Academy of Arts presents an exhibition of work by Tracey Emin RA, revealing her longstanding fascination with the artist Edvard Munch, about whom she says: ‘I've been in love with this man since I was eighteen’.
Throughout her career, Emin has been drawn to Munch's expressionism and shares his concern with exploring the complexity of the human psyche. As early as 1998, Emin referenced Munch in both the title and location of the film work Homage to Edvard Munch and all My Dead Children, which opens with a naked Emin curled in a foetal position on a wooden jetty on the edge of the Oslo Fjord in Asgardstrand where Munch painted several well-known works. This exhibition reveals the way in which Munch has been a constant inspiration and showcases Emin’s wide-ranging skills as an artist.
This exhibition is organised by the Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway, in partnership with Royal Academy of Arts and Tracey Emin.
Royal Academy of Arts
Burlington House, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London W1J 0BD
"The static solipsism of Munch’s figures emphasises the more frantic energy and neurotic lines of Emin’s painting."
"Drawn from her own body, literally and figuratively, Ms. Emin’s nudes have a different power."
"The paintings are, in fact, best thought of as very big drawings, admirably spontaneous, showing the images in a state of becoming."
"Whether painting figures, buildings or landscapes, Munch projects onto his subjects the intense feelings of desolation, loneliness and abandonment which haunted him most of his life."