Digital print on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
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<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>
Last Thing I Said to You was Dont Leave Me Here II
Presented anonymously 2002
actions: postures and motions
adults
architecture
artist, multi-media
arts and entertainment
back
bathing hut
body
clothing and personal items
crouching
Emin, Tracey
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
female
formal qualities
named individuals
necklace
nudes
objects
people
photographic
portraits
public and municipal
self-portraits
tattoo
vulnerability
woman
work and occupations
<p>This photograph is one of two naked self-portraits taken in a beach hut near Margate that Emin bought in 1992. She used the hut as a weekend retreat and enjoyed owning property for the first time: ‘I was completely broke and it was brilliant, having your own property by the sea’.</p><p>The photograph is reminiscent of the work of the Austrian painter Egon Schiele, whom Emin much admires; her pose recalls the vulnerable, dejected figure of a punished child.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2004</em></p>
paper print digital
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
6 June 2007 – 9 September 2007
2007-09-09
6 June 2007 – 9 September 2007
2007-09-09
2007-06-06
Scottish National Portrait Gallery (Edinburgh, UK)
29 September 2007 – 9 December 2007
2007-12-09
2007-09-29
Compton Verney (Compton Verney, UK)
2007-06-06
Naked Portrait
Loan-out
21 January 2011 – 20 March 2011
2011-03-20
21 January 2011 – 20 March 2011
2011-03-20
2011-01-21
New Art Gallery Walsall (Walsall, UK)
http://www.artatwalsall.org.uk/
2011-01-21
The Life and Mind
Loan-out
14 November 2012 – 10 March 2013
2013-03-10
14 November 2012 – 10 March 2013
2013-03-10
2012-11-14
Ben Uri Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.benuri.org.uk/
2012-11-14
Can You Hear Me?
Loan-out
5 November 2016 – 31 August 2025
2025-08-31
5 November 2016 – 5 February 2017
2017-02-05
2016-11-05
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia)
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au
18 March 2017 – 16 July 2017
2017-07-16
2017-03-18
Auckland Art Gallery (Auckland, New Zealand)
11 August 2017 – 4 February 2018
2018-02-04
2017-08-11
Seoul Olympic Museum of Art (Seoul, South Korea)
24 March 2018 – 24 June 2018
2018-06-24
2018-03-24
Yokohama Museum of Art (Yokohama, Japan)
13 July 2018 – 28 October 2018
2018-10-28
2018-07-13
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (Kaohsiung, Taiwan)
10 November 2023 – 14 April 2024
2024-04-14
2023-11-10
LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Westfälisches (Munster, Germany)
http://landesmuseum.lwl.org
2016-11-05
Nude: art from the Tate collection
Tate partnerships & programmes
The Last Thing I Said to You was Don’t Leave Me Here II
image: 805 × 1095 mm
Presented anonymously 2002
<p>This photograph, which was published in an edition of six, is a self-portrait of the artist sitting naked on the floor in the corner of a beach hut. Her back is to the camera and she leans slightly forward. A small tattoo of a scorpion is visible on her left shoulder blade. Thick gold necklaces glint at the nape of her neck. Her pose recalls the vulnerable, dejected figure of a punished child. Paint is peeling from the walls of the empty hut, giving it a ramshackle appearance which heightens the mood of pathos.
<br/>
<br/>Emin bought the beach hut in Whitstable, Kent with her friend, the artist Sarah Lucas (born 1962), in 1992. Emin used the hut as a weekend retreat, going there with her boyfriend. She has talked about the importance of owning property for the first time, saying, ‘I was completely broke and it was really brilliant, having your own property by the sea’ (quoted in Lobel). In 1999, she transported the hut from the beachfront to the gallery, titling it <i>The Last Thing I Said to You is Don't Leave Me Here (The Hut)</i>, 1999 (Saatchi Gallery, London).
<br/>
<br/><i>The Hut</i> was exhibited for the first time in London in <i>Ant Noises (part two)</i> at the Saatchi Gallery in 2000. (The show’s title was an anagram of <i>Sensation</i>, the 1997 exhibition of work by young British artists in the Saatchi Collection at the Royal Academy, London.) The installation was accompanied by two photographs including the work now owned by Tate. The companion image, <i>The Last Thing I Said to You was Don't Leave Me Here I</i>, 2000 (National Portrait Gallery, London), shows the artist kneeling on the floor of the hut. She is seen from the side as she leans forward placing her right hand on her knee. Her eyes are closed. Emin has described why she chose to photograph herself naked, saying, ‘The hut is a bare and naked thing. I thought it made perfect sense if I was. It’s also got some kind of weird, religious look in it, like I’m praying or something’ (quoted in Lobel). There is a meditative quality to Emin’s postures in the photographs, and her nudity suggests that she is enacting a private ritual of purification or sacrifice.
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<br/>In the Tate work the space is particularly confined. The angle of the camera looking down on the figure huddled in the corner puts the viewer in a position of authority. The title suggests that the image documents the aftermath of a lovers’ quarrel, with the woman abandoned in an inhospitable environment. Emin’s work is highly confessional. <i>The Last Thing I Said to You was Don't Leave Me Here II</i>
invites an autobiographical narrative reading but because, unlike in many of her text-based works (see <i>Tracey Emin C.V.</i>, 1995, Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/emin-tracey-emin-c-v-t07632" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T07632</span></a>), the story is hinted at rather than spelt out, the viewer is left to draw his or her own conclusions about what may have happened in the hut. The photograph looks like both the staged reconstruction of an incident from the artist’s past and her attempt to derive some peace from a distressing memory. The image invites the viewer to empathise with the artist and to respect the emotional honesty with which she documents and shares her pain.
<br/>
<br/><b>Further reading:</b>
<br/>Mandy Merck and Chris Townsend, eds., <i>The Art of Tracey Emin</i>, London, 2002.
<br/>Mark Lobel, ‘Inside Tracey’s Bed’, <i>Varsity Online</i>, 6 October 2000, www.varsity.cam.ac.uk/8025694E0073CFEB/Pages/5102000_InsideTraceysBed.html.
<br/>Gemma de Cruz, <i>Ant Noises at the Saatchi Gallery 2</i>, exhibition catalogue, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2000, reproduced p.13 in colour.
<br/>
<br/>Rachel Taylor
<br/>November 2003</p>

Summary
2006-04-12T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text6">This <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/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a> is one of two naked  self-<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/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portraits</span></a>      taken in a beach hut near Margate that Emin bought in 1992. She used the      hut as a weekend retreat and </span><span class="text12">enjoyed owning      property for the first time: ‘I was completely broke and it was      brilliant, having your own property by the sea’.</span><span class="text6">
<br/> </span>
</div>
<div class="para9">
<span class="text6">
<br/> </span>
</div>
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text6">The photograph is reminiscent of the work of the      Austrian painter </span><span class="text12">Egon</span><span class="text13"> </span><span class="text12">Schiele</span><span class="text6">,      whom Emin much admires; her pose  recalls</span><span class="text14"> the      vulnerable, dejected figure </span><span class="text6">
of a punished      child. </span>
</div>

Display caption
2004-10-07T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: postures and motions adults architecture artist, multi-media arts and entertainment back bathing hut body clothing and personal items crouching Emin, Tracey emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas female formal qualities named individuals necklace nudes objects people photographic portraits public and municipal self-portraits tattoo vulnerability woman work and occupations