Emin's iconic and controversial installation will be shown alongside a collection of JMW Turner's seascapes and stormy skies, chosen by the artist, loaned from Tate's collection.
The artist's unmade bed, surrounded by used condoms, stained underwear, cigarette butts and empty vodka bottles marked a moment of epiphany in Emin's life. After spending over a week in bed drifting in and out of consciousness in an alcoholic haze, she reached a realisation. ''I just suddenly thought, 'This is horrific.' And then it all turned around for me. It stopped being horrific and started being beautiful. Because I hadn’t died, had I?''
Emin created the piece in her Waterloo council flat in 1998 and later featured it in her Turner Prize exhibition in 1999. The piece is a raw portrait of Emin, with the artist herself absent. In the piece nothing is taboo, it represents a pivotal point in British art in which contemporary artworks achieved mainstream fame. Its influence, both on art and wider culture, has been profound.
On her return to her hometown Margate, Emin has said: ''Out of all the places My Bed has been shown this is one of the most exciting and ambitious for me as I know the audience will be very discerning.''
Margate is the third location that My Bed has toured to. Previously, it was at Tate Britain, where Emin had paired it with works by Francis Bacon, and then at Tate Liverpool, where it was accompanied by Tracey's selection of William Blake works.
Victoria Pomery, Director of Turner Contemporary says, ''We're eagerly awaiting the arrival of My Bed and the responses it will spark. The work, now almost 20 years old, was shown by Tracey Emin for her nomination for the Turner Prize exhibition in 1999. Ahead of the Turner Prize coming to Turner Contemporary in 2019, there couldn’t be a more pertinent moment to display this work.''
Tracey Emin, My Bed/ JMW Turner will be at Turner Contemporary from 13th October, 2017, to 14th January, 2018. Coinciding with this Turner Contemporary presents Arp:The Poetry of Forms, the first exhibition in a public gallery of Jean Arp's work in the UK since 1966.
The exhibition is the first show of Arp's work in a public gallery in the UK since his death in 1966. Over 70 works will be on show, with loans coming from the three Arp foundations in Berlin, Paris and Locarno, and from museums including Kunstmuseum Basel, Tate London and Centre Pompidou in Paris, many of which have never been seen in this country before.
One of the most original and innovative artists of the 20th century, Arp pioneered the use of chance in art and was a key figure in both Dada and Surrealism. The exhibition showcases the full gamut of Arp's work: sculptures, reliefs and works on paper, poetry, writings and publications and explore the interactions of his visual and verbal poetics.
