Tracey Emin

Executed in 2020, Absolute Fucking Desperation is Tracey Emin’s response to The Scream by Edvard Munch. Aggressive, forceful marks in tones of blue, red and pink engulf the surface of the canvas in a fervent crescendo of acrylic pigment, exemplifying the artist’s psychologically charged, highly expressive approach to gestural painting.

Emin’s artistic recognition stems from her deeply personal, biographical work across mediums, including installation, embroidery and neon. Although she studied painting at the Royal College of Art in London, she has always had a fractious relationship with the medium, once relegated by the Young British Artists movement as the least radical form of art making.

In constructing a painting, Emin will overwork, repaint and return to a canvas for days, months or even years until it satisfies her, giving the artist a profound sense of agency and empowerment. The canvas is not created for the consumption of the viewer, but rather is a psychologically charged dialogue the artist is having with herself, a dialogue the viewer is often locked out of.