I thought it would be my one and only exhibition, so I decided to call it My Major Retrospective.

Meaning of the quote

The artist Tracey Emin thought that her exhibition would be her last, so she chose to call it "My Major Retrospective." This means that she believed this would be her final big show, where she could look back on her entire artistic career. Emin decided to give it this special name, even though it turned out not to be her only exhibition.

About Tracey Emin

Tracey Emin is an iconic British artist known for her raw, autobiographical works in various media. From her infamous ‘My Bed’ installation to her tenure as a professor at the Royal Academy, Emin’s career has been marked by controversy, acclaim, and a unique exploration of personal experience through art.

More about the author

More quotes from Tracey Emin

People try constantly to use me, and I hate it.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

I’ve got over so much. Mum wouldn’t want anything to come into my life that would make me fragile again.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

I’m out of here, I’m better than all of you.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

They grew really quickly. One minute I didn’t have any tits and the next I had the biggest tits in the world.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

I have hardly any friends who aren’t gay.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

If I didn’t want to work for a couple of years, I wouldn’t have to-it’s a great feeling, to know I’m doing it because I want to do it.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

It wasn’t so much destroying my dancing, it was destroying me.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

One thing that success has taught me is censorship.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

Some people use just one condom, right? But we use tons.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

It pleases me that people can be interactive.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

There is nothing difficult about my work, and people get to hear it from me.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

There’s so much stuff said about me that’s not true, so now if something is hurtful and wrong, I send an e-mail or letter immediately, saying, This is not true.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

I am fiercely independent and I probably wouldn’t be if it wasn’t for the way in which I was brought up.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

I don’t ask for an apology because it’s only tomorrow’s fish-and-chip paper.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

Maybe I don’t believe things myself, as well. Truth is such a transient thing.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

It’s my memory, and what happened between that moment 10 or 15 years ago and now, there’s a lot of gray area.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

When I got the phrase media whore thrown in my face last year, I thought, Oh my God, if you only knew.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

What is truth? Truth doesn’t really exist. Who is going to judge whether my experience of an incident is more valid than yours? No one can be trusted to be the judge of that.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

It’s happened time and time again, but the committee has always decided against it-the work was too conservative or didn’t fit within the budget; there are millions of different reasons.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

I thought it would be my one and only exhibition, so I decided to call it My Major Retrospective.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

I never grew up.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

People don’t remember. Revenge is sweet.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

I’m not trying to find another thing that’s wrong with me, but I’m such a nice person, and I have a couple of drinks and I’m really good fun and then I’m really not fun.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

With any story I write, I could actually write it from three or four different perspectives, which would end with a completely different moral at the end.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

The idea that I’m going to have to sit down to write some fiction where I’m going to have to think of a plot would really scare me, because it would come out a mess.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

All the mistakes I’ve ever made in my life have been when I’ve been drunk. I haven’t made hardly any mistakes sober, ever, ever.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

I’ve been slagged off completely by the art world.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

They look at someone like me, and I just really get up their nose. I really wind them up.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist

My mum has never wanted me to have children. She thinks I would be destroying my life, even now.

Tracey Emin

English sculptor, painter, and installation artist