Tracey Emin – a tortured creative life

Tracey Emin, the controversial artist known for her confessional and autobiographical creations has announced that her bladder cancer is “gone” after her three-monthly scans were “all clear”. She was diagnosed with aggressive cancer last year and had her bladder, urethra, lymph nodes, half of her vagina and part of her intestine removed as well as a full hysterectomy, to stop the spread of the cancer. She now has a urostomy bag, which replaces the bladder and urinary system, which needs to be emptied as frequently as every 20 minutes.

  Once known as the enfant terrible of the Young Brit art scene, her most infamous installation was My Bed – consisting of her own unmade dirty bed, in which she had spent several weeks drinking, smoking, eating, sleeping and having sexual intercourse while undergoing a period of severe emotional flux. The artwork featured used condoms and blood-stained underwear.

  She was born 3 July 1963 6.50am London with an unwed mother of Romani traveller descent and a Turkish-Cypriot father who had another family. She left school at 13 and moved to London when she was 15. Her work has been analysed in terms of childhood abuse and assault and she said she was raped at 13. She later had two traumatic abortions and went through a suicidal phase.

  She has a creative 12th house Cancer Sun trine Neptune in her 4th house with an emotionally intense Scorpio Moon also in her 4th which rules home and childhood. Her Moon squares an 8th house Saturn which in turn is trine Venus Mercury in Gemini – so not much emotional nurturing.

  Her chaotic and turbulent life will be partly linked to a volatile collection of Uranus Pluto and Mars in Virgo, with assertive Mars in her 3rd. This is offset by a talented, lucky Jupiter in her 10th which suggests growing respect for her abilities the older she gets. And given that her Jupiter is on the apex of a Yod to Mars sextile Neptune she has the potential to be influential out in society – as long as she keeps her ego and grandiosity under control.

  Last year tr Saturn joined tr Pluto moving through her 6th house of health which will have been heavily restrictive and points to health being a major issue. Tr Saturn has now moved on lifting some of the pressures. But her Progressed Moon will move in within weeks to stay in her 6th for two years ahead so she’ll need to take continuing care. Last year her Solar Arc Midheaven squared her Uranus sending her career off track. Her Solar Arc Neptune also moving through her 6th for many years will oppose her Sun in 2023 which again suggests a need for a quieter lifestyle.

  There’s always been an over-dramatic, fated feel about her life. Not I confess one of my favourite ‘artists’ since the modernist heap-on-the-floor creations do nothing for me.  

Charles Saatchi was a major collector of her work. See post March 29 2021.

Pic Piers Allardyce.

38 thoughts on “Tracey Emin – a tortured creative life

  1. She’s so much more than ‘the bed’ – I bought a print of one of her drawings from her (in person!) at her stall at the Art Car Boot Fair (an annual tradition where name and unknown artists sell directly to the public for a few hours). I bought it because her drawing line is exquisitely sensitive and it just spoke to me. Her paintings and sculpture are powerful but most of all emotional. Nothing ‘seedy’ about any of it, it’s all empathy.
    It might surprise you to know the print was just a very delicate, innocent pen drawing of a figure kneeling to feed or stroke a cat. Other artists would be sneered at by the ‘establishment’ for daring to do that, but in the context of her work it feels like a glimpse of a simple, homely moment without jugement.

    • M – Wow! You’ve expressed this so beautifully in a way I wasn’t quite able to find the words for. ‘Nothing seedy about any of it, it’s all empathy.’Very glad you had the opportunity to meet her in person and that you have such a lovely, ongoing reminder!

    • I had a similar experience to M. I once visited the house of someone who had a sketch/drawing she had done of a bird on a branch, which was so sensitive and beautiful. Ever since then I’ve followed her career with interest. She was featured in a Who Do You Think You Are episode on the BBC which explored her Romani background going back generations. She was absolutely delighted to discover this family history and I got the feeling she felt validated by it in the path she had herself chosen.

      I admire her guts and courage and wish her nothing but the best.

  2. Thank you. It’s also interesting to compare her to George Michael, born a week earlier and a similarly turbulent life. He also had a 12th house Sun but a Leo ascendant and Leo Moon. After he died, many acts of private generosity came to light, which many say were only the tip of the iceberg.

    However, George’s Leo Moon has a closer hard aspect to Saturn than Tracy’s and Tracy’s Saturn seems a little more integrated to the chart with some softer aspects to Mercury and Venus. Perhaps this lends just a little more stability and she has more of a counterweight against pushing herself quite as far.

    It is also interesting that George was deemed to be more self destructive whereas Tracy seems to be more a victim of circumstance. Tracy would emerge despite these circumstances and turn them into success, but for George success seemed to be a factor in his self destruction. Contrary to what is often normally written about the 12th house Sun, both have been very firm in being and projecting exactly who they are and exposing themselves to the risk of criticism and rejection. George Michael was the first celebrity that I remember as coming out as gay at a time when many famous people still feared doing so.

  3. I like her too. It makes me wonder what art is…and I guess it’s different for different people. She has a twin brother. The art that’s being spoken about – the installation work – is only part of her output. quite a lot of her drawings are tender and sensitive. It’s often assumed she can’t do ‘art’, but she studied drawing for 7 years and was appointed a professor of drawing. Setting differing viewpoints about her work aside, I’ve always thought she looks a little like Frida Kahlo who had an accident which left her with severe damage to her vagina and internal organs. Re her home, she grew up in a hotel in Margate which I believe her dad ran. I think his other family was a previous one which he kept under wraps. She was in a relationship with the dyslexic poet Billy Childish when she was younger. during her time at art college, she part funded her studies by writing individual letters each month to a small group of quite well known, but impoverished poets who gathered at the Turret Bookshop in Bloomsbury. They each gave her 5 or 10 pounds a month and the idea was that they could sell the letters when she became famous. ~My favourite Tracy moment was when she appeared on an up itself channel 4 up itself late night culture show. She was quite drunk and suddenly got up saying it was a load of bollocks and she was going home to see her mum! Her mum also died of bladder cancer a couple of years ago. I think to come through that kind of radical surgery and the ongoing treatment must take a lot of courage. Oh. And she’s into astrology.

    • Oh yes, I remember that Channel 4 programme, which I think was when she won the Turner prize. The studio was full of critics and among them, the rather pompous Waldemar Januszczak. Tracey had been celebrating and in vino veritas, directed a few colourful words his way and stormed out of the studio carrying a glass of something and a fag. Live TV – you can’t beat it!

        • Oh! Thanks Jo. I would have hated it too. I kind of want to stand up and give her a massive cheer when I watch it again. Drunk and somewhat incoherent, but speaking more sense than the rest of the pompous pontificators put together!

      • I saw a subsequent interview in which she explained she’d broken her finger on holiday in Turkey and had to take quite powerful anti-inflammatories to enable her to get back in time for the Turner prize…the pressure in the plane (remember planes?!) would have made her finger swell up massively otherwise. Add a few drinks and hey presto…Live TV Gold. I think she’s inherently very sane. I think Roger Scruton and the Head of the Royal Academy of Arts were on it too. I really hope she finds her way through and can stay well.

        • I was just watching an interview she did a few months back and I could listen to her for hours. She articulates herself very well and with a lot of intensity. I personally think when emotional sincerity and honesty is combined with intensity it is a good thing! You know where you stand with such people. Usually, lol. The way she understands art too is very interesting. I think she would have made a great teacher.

          • I’m totally with you on this – I wonder if it changes not necessarily your opinion of her installations, or your view of her art work, but the way you look at it or connect with it?

    • Yes, she does look a bit like Frida Kahlo now that you mention it! I do like Tracey as a person but as an artist, I honestly cannot see what there is to like. I’ve just checked her drawings out and technically they are quite bad. I do drawing and painting myself and I’m no genius but her artwork looks like what a child has scribbled down. But like you say, art resonates differently with different people. Which is a good thing I guess because it allows all kinds of artists to reach different audiences.

      • Yep. I guess it’s good we’re not all too samey. I started drawing during lockdown and was amazed at how much I enjoyed it, especially since even I have difficulty identifying what some it is when I look back over it! I think she’s quite refreshing and authentic in interviews. I hope she can stay well.

    • Frida Kahlo was another Cancer with an 8th house Saturn and Mars Uranus together in an earth sign – so quite similar.

        • Cancer is often important in the charts of artists. Like Emin, Artemisia Gentilischi (born 1593) whose paintings are also informed by an experience of rape, was a Cancer Sun with Mercury in Gemini with a Scorpio Moon

          • So interesting – I was reading about Artemisia Gentillischi a few weeks ago. Have to revisit her work and her story.

  4. Thank you Marjorie. Very striking to see the SA and Progressed charts line up with the natal like this, and see how much is going on there for her. She has now returned to drawing and painting, and seems to have left conceptual art behind. Some of it was destroyed in that huge art warehouse fire some years ago – another dramatic event in her life, although she had no control over that of course. Her drawings remind me of Egon Schiele’s work in many ways.

    • i think there’s a documentary on youtube about her having a profound connection with and being inspired by Egon Schiele.

    • Yes, there have been comparisons with Scheile’s work, though personally I don’t think her drawings have quite the same striking rawness or vulnerability of Scheile’s portraits. I’m not a big fan of the YBAs in general, but I prefer Emin’s work to that of Hirst. I also like Sarah Lucas’ work, probably because I’m a big Louise Bourgeois fan, and I see her in that tradition.

      • I agree with your comments about the comparison – I guess there’s a difference between emulation and inspiration. I love the rawness and vulnerability of his portraits – truly moving. I really like Louise Bourgeois too and understand why you see her in that tradition.

        • There’s an intriguing link between Schiele’s natal chart and Tracey Emin’s. Schiele’s Sun at 21 Gemini, and N Node at 23 Gemini, are conjunct Tracey’s Venus in Gemini. Schiele’s ascendant (16 Cancer), Venus (19 Cancer) and Chiron (21 Cancer) are conjunct Tracey’s N Node at 20 Cancer. Schiele himself also had Mercury, Pluto, and Neptune conjunct (!) opposite Mars in Sagittarius. These square onto Tracey’s Uranus in Virgo.

          Tracey also has a nodal link with Munch – his NN at 27 Scorpio is conjunct her Moon. Her Venus is conjunct his Uranus in Gemini. Her Uranus opposes his Neptune in Pisces.

          This makes me wonder about how we respond to art, music, ideas and so on. And whether we would find personal chart links with those writers, artists, or other figures who particularly inspire or attract us. Looking at the charts for W B Yeats and Rainer Maria Rilke, two of my favourite poets, I see a web of links between their charts and my own. I haven’t really looked into this before, but I’m now curious.

          • I’m getting completely fascinated by this! I feel really connected to Antoine de St Exupery who wrote the little Prince. Though I love this book, some of his other work – Night Flight for example in which he recounts his work as a pilot really speaks to me. I think I’ll draw up a wee list and have a look!

          • .. be interesting to look at when we ‘discover’ or come into contact with artists and see if they were going through similar transits as us when they produced the work. That’s my weekend sorted!

          • Carmel – thanks for the added dimension of transits! I’ve now looked at three artists I have always loved and found a striking number of strong links between their natal charts and my own. Two, Matisse and Redon, have the same Moon sign as me too – which makes sense of an ’emotional’ response to their work, or maybe an intuitive understanding of it.

            It would be interesting to find famous people who cite an historical person as their inspiration, or maybe have written a biography or something that meant a lot to them. Tracey Emin’s connection with Munch is clearly very important for her personally, and for her work.

            I am now wondering about Rupert Everett and Oscar Wilde…..

          • Oh, that’s reminded me of the beautiful Odilon Redon exhibition I went to years ago! I felt as if I was a bit of a plateau with astrology – whilst still loving it of course and the exchanges on here have set me off in a whole new direction. Thanks everyone!

          • This is interesting and worth investigating. I always thought there was a strong possibility that astro aspects definitely play a part in how we perceive and connect to those in the public eye and their works. I’m sure I read that the illustrator of the Grimm Fairytales, George Cruikshank, was a massive influence on JK Rowling imagining the Harry Potter world environment into being, so that could be a good place to investigate?

            Jane, I tried to look at some big influences in my life but this is where I just cannot grasp astrology. I almost had a mini-stroke doing so when looking at planetary degrees in contrast, lol! This is some of the few names I investigated:

            Elvis Presley = Both have earthy suns, water moons, earthy venus’. His sun, moon, venus, and NN sit in my 5th house. Composite Moon conjunct Jupiter. I thought there might be more crossovers given the intensity I idolized him from the age of basically birth until 16!

            Pablo Neruda = His 6-planet Cancerian stellium (sun, moon, venus, mars, merc, nep) conjuncts my natal Moon/Saturn in cancer. His pluto conjuncts my SN. His NN conjuncts my sun. His jupiter conjuncts my chiron. His stellium sits over my 10th and 11th houses. Six of my planets sit over his 7th and 8th houses. This connection felt electric when I came across his poetry after watching the Italian film, Il Postino!

            Frida Kahlo = Her cancerian sun, jup, nep, NN conjunct my Moon/Saturn in cancer and sit in my 10th house. Her venus/Pluto conjunct my SN. My NN sits in her 4th house. This felt like a soul sister/family connection when I came across her when I was a child of about 10. Her look was so unique yet it felt ‘familiar’ to me. At that age, I found her paintings fascinating and sometimes scary.

            I have always noticed over the past 10 years or so that there is almost and without fail a strong cancerian/pisces connection to my own personal influences, crushes, admiration, etc. It’s almost eerie. I have a prominent 10th house Moon in Cancer. This is when astrology resonates for me. I mean, what are the odds of being drawn to someone’s art, literature, music, even them and finding this water dynamic in all of them? Often the dynamic is sun cancer/pisces moon and visa versa. It’s very weird yet wonderful!

            I’m off to check my crossovers with Tracey Emin now and also look at the astro-cartography of a specific city I’ve been drawn to since I was a toddler. This is really interesting!

          • The last post on my aspects, I promise!

            Tracey Emin = Her sun conjuncts my cancer moon. Her NN conjuncts my Cancer Saturn. Her moon widely conjuncts my Neptune. Her Mars/Pluto conjuncts my Asc. Her Chiron conjuncts my Jupiter and, interestingly, her Jupiter conjuncts my Chiron too. Also, her Uranus conjuncts my Venus. Lots of conjunctions there I didn’t expect. We’re both water moons.

            I don’t know if it shows up in the astrology but the feeling I get with Tracey’s work is a mix of unresolved pain and intense nervous stress. Her art feels painful to me. Growing up and having experienced/known others who experienced poverty, abuse and an environment of alcoholism makes her art difficult. It’s not art, it’s a reality to me. The ‘griminess and seediness’ I mentioned earlier is not necessarily meaning Tracey but what others do to people that it can ‘feel’ that way. If you know what I mean?

            Her drawings are where I pick up this intense but very fine balance of someone whose art just about keeps them together from disintegrating. Like she is an exposed nerve and art saves her? However, as a person, I so get her on many levels! I love her emotional intensity and have noticed she also has a childlike vulnerability about her which is adorable. The life she’s had and to be able to express that side of her is a credit to her. I might be wrong about Tracey but I have found being empathetic can make it difficult to be around some people as well as certain people’s artistic works. The artist, Francis Bacon just dredges up all sorts inside and it isn’t pleasant, like suicide, madness, frustration, feeling trapped. Tracey’s work feels much easier on my nervous system compared to him!

            Havana, Cuba – I’ve had an intense fascination for the city since I became conscious. I would often point out pictures or scenes on tv/film and come to life when I heard old Cuban music. When I was about 3 my parents had a rock album which we cannot for the life of us remember which group it was that had the picture of the El Capitolio building on its cover. I’d sit there on the lounge floor with the album in my hands for hours imagining (or was it remembering?!) life walking down the street in Havana.

            The astro-cartography aspects has my Sun on the IC in Havana. If I place my birth in Havana with a corrected time zone, the 1515 Havana chart has its Jupiter conjunct my Moon/Saturn, its Venus conjunct my ASC, its Moon conjunct my Sun, it’s Uranus conjunct my Chiron, its Saturn conjunct my Neptune, it’s Pluto conjunct my DC, and 5 of my 10 planets sit in Havana’s 12th house which might indicate a past-life connection if such a thing exists?

            This is one rabbit hole you could disappear in for days! That’s enough blah blah blah from me 🙂 I’d be interested in what others have come up with.

          • That’s amazing about Havana – I don’t think you need to apologize -it’s fascinating. Because I’d already said I’d met Prince Philip through my work – I was a mountain guide and helped run Duke of Edinburgh awards, I didn’t want to sound like I was name dropping (!) but in another comment I mentioned a book shop Tracey used to visit and the arrangement she had to write to several poets each month so they could sell her letters when she was famous. I was blessed to have a Saturday job in that bookshop when I was a student and Tracey came in every week as she a friend of the owner (Turret Bookshop – Bernard Stone) – so I had quite a lot of time to chat with her and went to her final exhibition at art school. I went travelling and we lost touch, but I have a real soft spot for her for the very reasons you’ve outlined above. I think the connections between your charts are really poignant and your sense of her and how you intuit her internal conflict and relationship with her art are spot on. I’m sure she spoke about this too in the documentary ‘What do artists do all day?’ I watched it on youtube a while back. Just on our previous subject – if I dare go back there! I saw an old interview with Prince Philip yesterday about conservation and he was speaking fluent French. What was amazing is that you wouldn’t know he was the same guy – he was so much softer – and it was the language of his childhood when he was in exile and staying with his aunt and mother in France and apparently he and the Queen often spoke in French when they were together. I so hope Tracey stays well and there’s a lot of beautiful support and understanding for her on here. I love rabbit holes – enjoy! And I loved hearing about your discoveries.

          • See Jo, I quite resonate with Francis Bacon and not because I find his paintings comfortable, they’re not, they’re visceral and raging and the bullfighting/boxer/Pope/butcher Plutonic male sexual energy is so raw —a disturbing depiction of the turmoil of the first 50 years of the 20th Century. I remember seeing the Studies for Figures at the Base of the Crucifixion at an exhibition as a teenager and they really struck me. That orange colour. I read his biography and his incredibly ****** up childhood, (he has Moon conjunct Saturn in Aries) with a brute of a father (the leitmotif of his Pope and Butcher paintings) who was so threatened by Bacon’s sexuality, he had his son horsewhipped by his grooms, eventually sending his young son to Berlin with a rather dodgy uncle where, amidst the counter-cultural boom of 1930s Berlin, the young Bacon found himself in his element. Bacon had a tendency towards abusive relationships and sadomasochism. There’s a film, ‘Love is the Devil’ about Bacon’s destructive relationship with his muse, George Dyer who he first encountered when Dyer broke into Bacon’s studio one night. But Bacon had a huge appetite for life, alcohol and company and was part and parcel of the London Soho scene of the 50s, the infamous ‘Colony’ drinking club presided over by an eccentric character named Muriel Belcher. Naturally, Bacon is a Scorpio and has two Grand Crosses one Mutable involving Pluto in square to Mars, Jupiter opposing Venus and one Cardinal, (Uranus Neptune Jupiter Saturn). Being, Plutonic myself I can find I feel these images, though I’m a woman, I have a Scorpio Mars and it needs expression or it can be difficult.

          • Wow! So much here to think about from all of you, and everything so fascinating and thought provoking. Thanks very much for sharing and widening the discussion. I don’t know what the statistical chances are of these resonances and chart connections, but they can’t be very high. What appears to be random attractions to certain works of art or writing etc, are somehow part of a big chord it seems.

            I had a quick look at Rupert Everett and Oscar Wilde, since Everett worked so tirelessly and passionately on his film about Oscar, and it meant so much to him. There are many links between this Gemini and Libran pair. What’s quite touching is Rupert’s Sun in Gemini trine Oscar’s Venus in Libra, and Rupert’s Venus in Cancer opposing Oscar’s Jupiter, square Oscar’s Sun in Libra. The tough and lengthy process of bringing the film to fruition is partly suggested by Rupert’s Saturn square Oscar’s Venus, and Oscar’s Saturn square Rupert’s Moon.

          • I loved that film, ‘The Happy Prince’ Jane and listened to an interview with Everett where he spoke so elegantly and with such empathy and intelligence about this period in Wilde’s life, a man who he so obviously identified with. I became drawn (literally) to Wilde when I made a pen and ink portrait of him for a project when I was training for my illustration qualifications. It turns out, Wilde was Virgo rising. Sun in Libra in 2nd, Mercury in Scorpio in the 3rd, Mars in the 3rd, which echos my own chart. I also notice that Stephen Fry, who also played Wilde has Venus in Libra which conjuncts Wilde’s Sun, Moon in Leo conjunct that of Wilde and his Part of Fortune conjuncts Wilde’s Virgo Ascendant. I too have a Virgo/Libra/Scorpio emphasis and both actors have strong appeal to me.

          • Yes, VF, I loved The Happy Prince too, and the story of it’s conception and ‘birth’. Many do not realise quite how much emotional energy goes into creative projects of all kinds, ahem. It’s interesting what you say about Stephen Fry and Oscar W’s chart as well, I remember that film and was quite impressed with it at the time. These resonances with historical figures are probably easiest to trace with actors, so Tracey Emin’s links with Munch and Schiele are a bit of gift for astrological analysis.

            Rupert Everett shares his birthday day with Charles II. He played a wonderfully louche Charles II in a film called Stage Beauty, years ago. I like that synchronicity.

  5. Not one of my favourite artists, either, Marjorie. Her work just seems so grim and seedy. Very depressing, actually. I thought art, in my own naivety, was created from pain to possibly inspire others. That something beautiful can be created from pain, trauma, and tragedy and make life, even in its darkness, one worth living ultimately. Or something like that. Even war poetry from World War 1 from the likes of Wilfred Owen and Seigfried Sassoon, etc., creates a profound beauty out of its tragedy and desolate environment and feelings and gives life an even deeper meaning. When I see her work, it just reminds me of my childhood and some of the friends I knew or members of family who lived in abject poverty (not that I lived a life of luxury, far from it). When I see her work it doesn’t inspire me, it makes me want to run away from it or jump in the shower with a bottle of bleach and scrubbing brush! It’s certainly more interesting from a psychology point of view in relation to abuse but art it is not, in my eyes.

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