Loneliness in a state of colour - Tracey Emin
⏱ 5 min
The theme of loneliness isn’t often spoken about, but in Tracey Emin’s recent exhibition, ‘The Loneliness of the Soul’, it is put in the centre of the stage. Emin’s mixed-media artworks are paired seamlessly alongside a collection of the late Norwegian Modernist painter, Edvard Munch, and is showing at the Royal Academy of Arts until 1st August 2021. The last exhibition that I visited of Emin’s was at the White Cube, titled ‘A Fortnight of Tears’ (2019). There is a particular vantage point between both exhibitions, as she intimately exposes her raw ‘self’, while deploying the act of creating art, as a record to cement the traumatic modes of feeling experienced in human life. Her work therefore pairs effortlessly with Munch (1863 – 1944), who similarly recognised the painful and all-consuming ego identity and its visceral effect of torturing the soul.
Crouching Nude by Edvard Munch (1917-19)
During Emin’s exhibition at White Cube, she disclosed the personal trauma that she experienced surrounding the abortion of her child and the subsequent effects that this played towards her mental health. A series of expansive paintings, with red, pink and blue, chaotic brushstrokes, collided as they depicted a woman’s body to appear like an aggressive depiction of blood and sorrow, varnished the canvas’. This immediately reflected a feeling of intimacy and vulnerability – a raw expression of loss, for an audience to bear witness to. Noteworthily, two years later, in Emin’s showcase at the RA, in 2021, this depiction remains. When entering the gallery space, it is immediately filled with a wit that is fuelled with intensity and a sensitive self-expression. The room is seductively split amongst the two artists as we are introduced to both Emin and Munch’s artwork, existing together in harmony. The balance between feminine and masculine expressionism takes its place here, as we can see the way in which they both represent feelings of moodiness, introspection, and loss.
100 years of time separates the artistic practices between Munch and Emin, but their representations of pain hold a likeliness which is vivid and tangible. In Munch’s painting, ‘Crouching Nude’ (1917-19), a curvaceous female is illustrated in a scene which is coloured in vibrant pink and orange hues. Contrastingly, her body is outlined in a fuscous green trace. The tone of sadness exceeds the contradicting colour scheme, as her isolated body position is reminiscent of a foetus pose that a woman makes when mourning, and harbouring feelings of great discomfort. Similarly, Emin’s painting ‘It - didnt stop - I didnt stop’ (2019), guides us towards a familiar moment, which is less figurative and more expressionistic. The paint strokes allude to a feminine body, through illustrative marks, in the midst of a crudely, yet purposeful, gesture of burning red and cool blue acrylic paint bleaching the top of the canvas. Beneath it, the appearance of a woman’s body in a state of motion and resistance meets our eyes. This highlights a primal state of trauma, where one feels secluded in their own intense feelings of woe and isolation. The subsequent pairing of these two artists is therefore awakening towards the transcending tone of sadness which makes its way into our lives, despite the inevitability of time.
More Solitude by Tracey Emin (2014)
Surrounding the intimate expressions of sadness, a subtlety of lightness glistens in this tone of darkness. As represented through Emin’s playful neon light installations, where she handwrites codes and clues for us to unpack, alongside Munch’s daring use of a bright and joyful colour palette – the feeling of loneliness is somehow transformed into an artful aesthetic. In life, we can harbour feelings of sadness and internalise them as a longstanding trauma, which keeps us in an eternal state of pity. But arguably, there is a way of evolving through these lived experiences and considering the light that they expose us to. It is therefore a beautiful sight to see the way in which both Munch and Emin, through their exposure to the lingering feelings of pain and inadequacy, that is bound within the human experience, have breathed through these moments and found a colourful account for a time that once was, mourning.
