Monoprint on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Tate Patrons
Patrons of New Art
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/tracey-emin-2590" aria-label="More by Tracey Emin" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Tracey Emin</a>
8020 Canada
Presented by the Patrons of New Art (Special Purchase Fund) through the Tate Gallery Foundation 1999
abstraction
adults
female
figure
from recognisable sources
inscriptions
nudes
number
people
symbols and personifications
woman
<p>Emin places herself centre-stage in  her work, telling intimate stories about her life. 'It's like a cleansing of my soul.  It's not just getting rid of baggage or carnage. It's not that simple. Something actually happens within me.'</p><p>Several of the works refer to traumas, such as having an abortion or splitting up with her boyfriend. These painful events are conveyed with brutal simplicity and candour but, as she says, 'Being an artist isn't just about making nice things, or people patting you on the back; it's some kind of communication, a message'.</p><p><em>Gallery label, November 2002</em></p>
paper print monoprint
28 October 2002 – 5 January 2003
2003-01-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-10-28
Self Evident
Collection based display
23 August 2004 – 16 August 2005
2005-08-16
22 March 2004 – 21 August 2005
2005-08-21
2004-03-22
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2004-08-23
Tracey Emin
Collection based display
7 April 2011 – 8 June 2014
2014-06-08
7 April 2011 – 8 June 2014
2014-06-08
2011-04-07
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2011-04-07
Modern Print Room
Collection based display
80%-20% Canada
image: 584 × 811 mm
Presented by the <a href="/search?gid=999999965" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Patrons of New Art</a> (Special Purchase Fund) through the Tate Gallery Foundation 1999
<br/>Presented by the Patrons of New Art (Special Purchase Fund) through the Tate Gallery Foundation 1999<br/><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/emin-80-20-canada-p11566" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11566</span></a>
<p>Emin's <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/monoprint" title="Glossary definition for 'Monoprint'"><span>monoprints</span></a> have a diaristic aspect and frequently depict events from the past. Often they incorporate text as well as image, although some bear only text and others only image. The text appears as the artist's stream of consciousness voice. The rapid, one-off technique involved in making monoprints is perfectly suited to (apparently) immediate expression, as is Emin's scratchy and informal <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> style. Rarely displayed alone, the monoprints are particularly effective as collective fragments of intense emotional confrontation. 

</p><p>Emin has made several works documenting painful moments of sadness and loneliness experienced when travelling to foreign cities for various exhibitions. <i>80% - 20% Canada</i>, as its title suggests, was made during a visit to Toronto. It depicts the top half of a female figure lying in a state of abandonment. The body seems to disintegrate from waist to feet. Emin has made many drawings depicting herself alone, masturbating or having sexual fantasies. <i>Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Yea Canada</i>, another monoprint made at the same time, portrays the artist masturbating. She has said of <i>80% - 20% Canada</i>: 'it's about being 100% about anything and if you're honest it's rare in life that you can be 100%. I think this particular drawing refers to sexuality' (in conversation with the author July 2001). The figure's position, lying down, arms thrown back, together with the scratchy lines over its crotch, suggest inebrieted, masturbatory fantasy. Above the body, the figures '80%=20%' are back-to-front as a result of the monoprinting process, which creates a mirror image of what is drawn or written. Emin has stated:

</p><p>     For me, aggression, sex and beauty go together. Much of my work has been about <br/>     memory, for example, but memories of violence and pain. Nowadays if I make a <br/>     drawing I'm trying to draw love, but love isn't always gentle  Being an artist <br/>     isn't just about making nice things, or people patting you on the back; it's some <br/>     kind of communication, a message. <br/>     (Quoted in Morgan, pp.59-60.)

</p><p>Emin's artistic production began in the early to mid 1980s with <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>printmaking</span></a> and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a>. She was inspired by Austrian artist Egon Schiele (1890-1918) and the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/expressionism" title="Glossary definition for 'Expressionism'"><span>German Expressionists</span></a>, whose work she became aware of while studying at Maidstone College of Art (1983-6). Aspects of these early influences remain both in her subject matter and her style. Emin presents the records of her past as objects of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/iconography" title="Glossary definition for 'Iconography'"><span>iconic</span></a> status, positing her persona (or the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/performance-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Performance art'"><span>performance</span></a> of it) as central. By basing her art on her emotional life, through the narration of frequently traumatic and abusive experiences, Emin has found a way to redeem her personal damage and to communicate on a direct and open level with her audience. She follows the precedence of Louise Bourgeois (born 1911), who has been making a direct connection between her art and her childhood traumas since the early 1980s, producing an <i>Autobiographical Series </i>of prints in 1994 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bourgeois-toilette-p77682" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P77682</span></a>-95). Emin's raw and brutal honesty exposes the mixture of pathos, vulnerability, resentment and frank aggression which makes humanity so complex.

</p><p><b>Further reading:<br/></b>Stuart Morgan, 'The Story of I: Interview with Tracey Emin', <i>Frieze</i>, issue 34, May 1997, pp.56-61<br/><i>Sex and the British</i>, exhibition catalogue, Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, Salzburg 2000, pp.3-4 and 25-9<br/>Neal Brown, Sarah Kent, Matthew Collings, <i>Tracey Emin: I Need Art Like I Need God</i>, exhibition catalogue, Jay Jopling, London 1998, p.6

</p><p>Elizabeth Manchester<br/>July 2001

</p><p></p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>
Emin places herself centre-stage in <br/>
her work, telling intimate stories about her life. 'It's like a cleansing of my soul. <br/>
It's not just getting rid of baggage or carnage. It's not that simple. Something actually happens within me.'</p>
<p>
 </p>
<p>
Several of the works refer to traumas, such as having an abortion or splitting up with her boyfriend. These painful events are conveyed with brutal simplicity and candour but, as she says, 'Being an artist isn't just about making nice things, or people patting you on the back; it's some kind of communication, a message'.</p>
<p>
 </p>
Display caption
2002-11-11T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
abstraction adults female figure from recognisable sources inscriptions nudes number people symbols and personifications woman