Tracey Emin / Ten Years

"So is that typical of art by women? I think it is. The desire, in the art of the nineteenth century, for lifelike naturalism inevitably led to an even more curious desire for intimacy. It was the age of diaries and of secret correspondence between confidantes. In this cultural context, it was possible that women, with their talent for detailed intimate narration, created beautifully fitting and noble art - particularly in England at that time, in literature: Charlotte Bronte, Christina Rosetti, Jane Austen. But there, too, though sharper than ever, sentiment continued to be polished by style and good taste. This was a tenuous and refined type of sentiment-as also displayed in the painting of the Pre-Raphaelites. In our day, when every intimacy is instantly televised worldwide in real time, the desire for the so-called actual truth, in exhaustive detail, has become a veritable obsession - verging on the pornographic. At the same time, art has access to new media, photography and video, which can record things in a direct and unveiled manner and which, in themselves, have no style because they are mechanical. Here, once again, it is therefore the women artists who are frequently producing the best and the most raw work. When a woman displays herself in the nude, it is not voyeurism but disarming candour. The intimacy can be further explored. The art of Tracey Emin is efficient and tasteless and beyond the control of style and consequently extraordinarily good, and it is as consistent with the times as Andy Warhol." extract from the essay by Rudi Fuchs