Tracey Emin - a moving article.

That's heartbreaking.

Ive always loved her. Her attitude and zest more than anything else. Such a refreshingly honest but sad article.

Brilliant interview - thank you to Decca Aitkenhead, who has been through her own personal trauma.

To you Tracey you are one hell of a woman.

It's a really moving interview. Agree about how Emin was creating art about uniquely female topics long before Caitlin Moran was talking about them.

But it's also illustrative, once again, of how female biology affects every woman alive. Emin has never had children but treating her cancer meant removing her ovaries and her uterus.

Lots of love to you Tracey x

She took ownership of her life, her trauma, her female experience, and refused to bow to societal shame

Yes! Plus she was doing that when lad culture peaked during the 90s and everyone pretended that because women got pissed too that sexism was over. Britpop culture was loud, brash and shallow, in retrospect her work was anything but shallow.

I've always been a huge fan. Discovered her art on a school trip to the Sensation exhibition in 1997? 1998? I wasn't enamoured with Damiam Hirst, it was Tracey all the way for me, aged 16. What immediately struck me was how she took ownership of her life, her trauma, her female experience, and refused to bow to societal shame. Big influence.

Needless to say I'm in tears reading that article. I really hope life turns around for her and she goes on making art for many more decades.

Oh Christ I had no idea. She is an amazing talent I have always loved her work, particularly her drawings, since seeing the tent. Back then I had no idea how misogynistic the art world was/is. She is particularly amazing to have got through with the acclaim she has given that. Wishing her the very very best.

Thanks for sharing.

What a moving interview. She's fantastic, and so strong. What a brave woman.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about this article since I read it yesterday. It’s an absolute belter of a piece, and having read it, I’m lost in admiration for Emin. Her drawings and paintings are absolutely sublime, I hadn’t appreciated how talented she is until recently. And the way she’s lived her life...

I really hope her health improves as much as it can. She’s an absolute legend, and I think misogyny has played a big role in how her work has been received.

I read this yesterday and I haven’t stopped thinking about it. She is an amazing artist and has come up against such misogyny in her professional life.
I hope she finds that person to love her the way she deserves.

Wow. Similarities with Frida Kahlo. Shocking though what she has already had to deal with. Strong woman.

I saw a documentary about her and her art a few years ago which was brilliant and I've had so much respect for her and her work ever since.

I love her drawings and paintings, so raw and powerful.

This is a devastating story, poor woman. I had no idea about her previous bladder issues, but her cancer and surgery have clearly been totally brutal.

I really hope she makes it past Christmas, and a long way beyond.

That is very very sad and moving.
I have loved her art since the 90s too.
I remember when she was getting slated in the press for the tent and she had to explain that everyone she'd ever slept with included childhood friends and things. It wasn't actually all about sex.
Also all the huffing and puffing about the bed. 'You call that art' etc etc. But it spoke to me very vividly about pain and messiness in life.
Her drawings are beautiful too and go to show she could always draw if she has chosen to. She's right as well that it was all about conceptual stuff like Damien Hurst and his half a shark in the 90s.
The only stuff of hers I never really 'got' was the neon signs.
I hope she beats this and makes art about it too.

What a brilliant interview with a brilliant woman.

I'm sorry about your vagina, Tracey.

I also wish her well. Saw a documentary about her a few years ago and she was way less of a party animal than I assumed and much more thoughtful.

Thanks for sharing. She’s amazing and that was so sad to read.

I love her and get her art. As a fellow cancer person this year I wish her all the best. Fuck cancer Tracey

Gutted for her. What a favour she has done to a lot of people with bladder cancer though, opening up the subject, bringing it into the light. She has a tenacity, a singularity, that is really compelling. Her honesty is the striking thing about her art and you can hear it in this interview too. Hope her new house is the start to the next chapter, may it be a long and happy one.

Oh my, that was a difficult read. My heart goes out to her. Tracey Emin was one of the women I thought of when Caitlin Moran claimed numerous firsts for herself. The Sensation exhibition was totally mind blowing for me. I didn't entirely get her, but I saw how brave and brazen she was and unapologetically honest. Sex, abortion, rape, she's covered it all and she's received so much flack. Now I think about it, when I was younger I saw that she was criticised for being a 'gobby' woman, for not being a proper artist and I saw the misogyny in that, but I didn't perhaps appreciate the underlying discomfort with her vocalising/visualising the experience of being female. Would have liked to delve more into her comments about the 90s obsession with conceptual art (not that that interview could have gone any other way after the cancer revelation). I think she was very savvy back then and grasped every opportunity, but she's a wonderful figurative artist and I love the drawings and paintings. I can see why she might feel she lost time. I hope that she finds comfort in her new home.

I'm so glad to see this.
I read the article yesterday and cried like a baby. So incredibly moving.

The older she gets the more I appreciate her work and relate to it. What she has suffered is so awful. Unimaginable in fact. I hope she recovers.

I love how honest her work is about being a woman. Life isn’t easy, she doesn’t hide that. I hope she gets her vagina back and has many happy, healthy years with it.

Munch’s work was self-involved, she points out, “but he wasn’t criticised for it”.

A reputation for messy emotional incontinence feels particularly unfair to Emin when she is actually “a really organised person."

Well, it's because she's a woman. Misogyny, innit.

That's so sad. I love her honesty. I wish her the best.