DESDE EL REINO UNIDO: DAVID HOCKNEY TRACEY EMIN
This exhibition in Chile was paired with an exhibition of prints by David Hockney drawn from the British Council Collection. Emin is usually grouped together with artists of her own generation (YBA’s), including Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Jake and Dinos Chapman, who are also noted for the uncompromising nature of their art. Yet there are some interesting connections between Hockney and Emin. He came to fame in 1963, the year Emin was born.
He too studied at the Royal College of Art and became known for his sexual imagery; though his art concerned homosexuality (homosexual sex between men was illegal in Britain at the time). There are also a number of similarities between her work and his early work, for example their use of words within images, and their preference for a raw, untutored look. As a student, Emin admired Hockney’s sexual openness, and his humble, unglamorous background, which in some ways matched her own. Just as Emin has become identified with Margate, so Hockney is with Bradford, a mill-town in Yorkshire