Art in Context | “Motherland”: Tracey Emin and Margate

This talk will explore two works by Tracey Emin through the lens of her hometown, Margate. The seaside town of Margate is not merely a backdrop for Emin, but a vital source of creative inspiration, just as it was for artists and writers past, including J. M. W. Turner, T. S. Eliot, and Charles Dickens. Emin’s identification with Margate, shaped by formative and turbulent years spent there, is central to her artistic persona—indeed, during the late 1990s Emin coined the moniker “Mad Tracey from Margate.” Lily Waterton will examine how Emin's personal mythology intertwines with the social and geographic context of the place she continues to call home.
To learn more, please visit: https://britishart.yale.edu/exhibitions-programs/art-context-motherland-tracey-emin-and-margate