After almost two decades together, Tracey Emin and the gallery Lehmann Maupin are moving on. In a statement, David Maupin said: “[We] have mutually decided to part ways and end our working relationship. Tracey is an important part of the gallery’s history and we will always cherish our friendship and collaboration.”
Emin first rose to prominence as part of the generation of Young British Artists (YBAs) in the 1980s, and is best known for her controversial 1998 work My Bed, in which her bed was surrounded by detritus including stained sheets, discarded condoms, bloodied underwear and empty bottles of alcohol. The piece was included in Emin’s first solo exhibition at Lehmann Maupin in 1999.
My Bed sold at auction in 2014 to the German art collector and industrialist Christian Duerckheim for $3.8m, and he put it on long-term loan Britain’s Tate Gallery. It currently features in the exhibition Tracey Emin and William Blake: In Focus at Tate Liverpool (until 3 September). Emin was short-listed for the Turner prize in 1999, and represented Britain at the 2007 Venice Biennale.
“We are proud of the work we have done together,” said Maupin, “And of the shared experiences we have had with Tracey. Rachel [Lehmann] and I wish her every success.”
For the moment, Emin does not have another US gallery, but she continues to be represented by White Cube, and the Brussels-
based gallery Xavier Hufkens will stage an exhibition of her work this autumn.
