Tracey Emin, Love is What You Want 

[En anglais]

Is Tracey Emin the best artist to represent contemporary Britain? The high profile solo show Love is What You Want, part of the Festival of Britain’s sixtieth anniversary exhibition, appears to suggest as much. Regardless of how varied the opinions about her work, she is probably the most well-known living artist in Britain. For the most part, this is due neither to technical skill nor a sense of the aesthetic; it is the result of her ability to court media attention. Emin has been consistent in producing a body of work that is so tightly interwoven with her private life as to be indis-sociable from it, and has managed to remain in the public eye for more than twenty years. As a result, we feel that we “know” her just as we know friends with boundary issues. 

Love is What You Want is a large-scale exhibition meant to survey Emin’s career by presenting works for which she is famous along with lesser-known pieces. Surprisingly, the works for which she is most infam-ous — My Bed, for which she received a Turner Prize nomination, and Everyone I Have Ever Slept With (1963-1995), which has come to be known simply as “The Tent” — are not included in this otherwise thorough pro-file.