Artist Tracey Emin has spoken about how her cancer affected her life and work after the King made her a Dame Commander for services to the arts at Buckingham Palace.
Dame Tracey, 61, is one of Britain’s most acclaimed artists, a member of the Young British Artists movement of the 1980s, a Turner Prize nominee, and now a member of the Royal Academy of Arts.
Her seminal works include Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995 – a tent with 102 people’s appliqued names – and My Bed, an art installation at the Tate Gallery consisting of her own unmade bed surrounded by detritus.
Speaking after an investiture ceremony at the palace on Tuesday, Dame Tracey spoke about about the health problems she suffered after she was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2020 – and how it had affected her work as an artist.
She said: “I’m 62, nearly, and I think my cancer changed a lot for me.
“Suddenly I realised, you know, what am I doing with my life?
“I’ve always made really serious art but now I’ve actually tried to put that into a reality of helping other people as well.”
Her Tracey Emin Foundation opened its doors in March 2023, and offers rent-free space to art students in a studio in converted public baths in Margate.
“I think if you come from an impoverished background, it’s almost impossible to even get your qualifications and get into university,” she said.
“But one thing I would say is: do not be put off by the fees.
“Go to university and worry about it afterwards, because otherwise, if you don’t have the education, you can’t change anything.”
Reminiscing about her own career, she added: “Growing up in Margate, I left school at 13, so many people told me I couldn’t do things – I wasn’t allowed to do this, I couldn’t go to university, I couldn’t be an artist.
“Look at me now. Yes I can, and other people can.
“You have to have belief and faith and perseverance, and for an artist that’s to finish their education.
“If you can’t afford a studio, if you can’t afford art materials, you sit at the kitchen table with a notebook and a biro and you draw every day.
“That’s my advice.”
Dame Tracey, who wore a black suit ensemble and a Lock & Co black hat, said she felt “a bit nervous” about what to wear on the day of the investiture ceremony after having an urostomy following cancer-removal surgery.
She said: “I want to be really comfortable, but also I wanted to make a big effort, and I think my hat does that.”
Asked what she thought of her transition in status from a disruptive contemporary artist to Dame Commander, she said: “I think when I was younger everybody thought I was moaning and screaming and whatever, but now people understand things that I was making work about were important: women’s issues, teenage sex, rape, abuse…
“All of these things really matter, and they matter more now.
“I think this is my time really. So it’s really appropriate and wonderful that I’ve been rewarded for this.”
Dame Tracey said she and the King had met on a number of occasions and said it was “really nice” to be able to discuss their shared love for art.
“We talked about art of course, because he is an artist, and it was really nice,” she said.
“I’ve met the King on a number of occasions so I was kind of at ease I would say, but it was still so exciting, it was amazing.
“It was in a beautiful room, and it was lovely meeting the other people receiving and their families.
“It was very gentle and much more relaxing than when I received my CBE.
“My mum was with me last time and she’s not with us any more so I’ve been really thinking about my mum today so it’s very special.”
The artist also commented that her medals looked “pretty stunning” and reminded her of her friend, the late fashion designer and fellow dame Vivienne Westwood.
“I actually looked at myself in the mirror when the King pinned it on me and I thought, ‘My God it’s so beautiful’.
“The star is fantastic.
“Also, I have been thinking about my friend Vivienne Westwood when she received hers.
“She was a true maverick.”
