Talk:Tracey Emin

On 24 May, 2004, a fire in a storage warehouse destroyed many works from the Saatchi collection, including Everyone I have ever slept with 1963-95, The Last Thing I Said Is Don't Leave Me Here and The Hut.

I wonder if the last two here named are the same thing. See for example [1] (http://www.artseensoho.com/Art/LEHMANNMAUPIN/emin99/emin1.html) (which claims to be The Hut) and [2] (http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/gallery/keyworks/emin002.htm) (which claims to be "The last thing I said to you is don't leave me here" - note there's "to you" in there, by the way). Does anybody know for sure? --Camembert

Categories

Just to comment that I removed the Category:Painters, because I doubt that Emin would describe herself as a painter. She seems to have made strenuous efforts to exorcise her training as a painter, although I seem to recall at least one of her early landscape paintings was exhibited at a show in London in 2003.

Wikipedia is about what people (and things) are, or have been, not how they describe themseves. Andy Mabbett 19:33, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Sorry, I missed your revert on this one. And I quite agree, people should be in the appropriate category for 'what they are' which doesn't always correspond with their own view of themselves. However, in this case I doubt there is a single art critic who would say that Tracy Emin is a painter, in fact she is more likely to be highlighted as the antithesis of a painter. I'm sure I don't need to remind you that her earliest claim to fame is a rather drunken appearance on Channel 4's 'End of Painting' (http://www.hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk/MultimediaStudentProjects/00-01/9704524l/MM%20Project/Html/badly1.htm) debate in 1997 - she wasn't in the pro-painting camp.

Now what makes you say that Tracey Emin is a painter? -- Solipsist 18:18, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Her paintings. HTH. Andy Mabbett 21:23, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Show me -- Solipsist 21:28, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

FFS! Tracey Emin. Andy Mabbett 21:34, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Lets try a little harder. Find me a reference outside of Wikipedia that shows one of her paintings, or refers to Emin as a painter (clue: there is one). Now do a Google search on say "Tracy Emin contemporary artist" and you will find some 8000 hits, or "installation artist", some 3000 hits. The guidance in Wikipedia:Categorization says;

Categories (along with other features, like cross-references) should help users find the information they are looking for as quickly as possible

Putting people into inaccurate categories, when it is not representative of their character doesn't help here. -- Solipsist 21:54, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I agree it wouldn't ("character" not withstanding - the category is not "people who have the character of painters", whatever that might be). This is not inacurate. Andy Mabbett 21:57, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

So I take it you will also put Emin in Category:Stuckism because that is was she learnt at college, whilst also putting her in Category:Anti-stuckism because Chai and Xi used My Bed to make a statement. -- Solipsist 22:08, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

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Interesting discussion above. I find it hard to put most contemporary artist in a subcategory such as painting or sculpture becuase many contemporary artists are quite repelled to be categorised. I added Tracey Emin to the Category:Contemporary artist because I think she should belong to the top category rather than only in installation art or painting. I think it is quite unsuful to put her in a subcategory because she could end up in painting, sculpture, installation art, collage, video art etc... Would'nt that dilute the very idea of categorisation? - Brunberg 17:54, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Amongst the artistic categories, there are separate, orthogonal hierarchies for time period, artistic movement, and medium. There is also a floating sub-classification of nationality which often gets attached to the principle medium category such as Category:British sculptors, but if a medium category hasn't grown large enough to sub-class by nationality the artist is grouped in Category:Nationality artists or Category:Nationality people.

So Emin is certainly in Category:Contemporary artists for time period, and is legitimately in Category:Conceptual artists, Category:Installation artists, Category:Video artists and even Category:Textile artists for medium. But she's hard to pin down for a specific artistic movement (perhaps Category:Anti-stuckism, but that's not such a strong movement). -- Solipsist 20:47, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC)