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>
Terribly Wrong
Presented by the Patrons of New Art (Special Purchase Fund) through the Tate Gallery Foundation 1999
abortion
adults
birth to death
bleeding
caption
diseases and conditions
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
female
inscriptions
nudes
people
society
symbols and personifications
vulnerability
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
18 May 2011 – 28 August 2011
2011-08-28
18 May 2011 – 28 August 2011
2011-08-28
2011-05-18
Hayward Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.hayward-gallery.org.uk
2011-05-18
Tracy Emin
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
Terribly Wrong
image: 582 × 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-terribly-wrong-p11565" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11565</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 <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. <i>Terribly Wrong</i> is based on an abortion the artist had during a 'week from hell' in 1994. During this week Emin had major dentistry, split up with her boyfriend and had an abortion. She exhibited drawings, together with documentation and remnants of the events of this disastrous week in <i>Minky</i> <i>Manky</i> at South London Gallery in 1995 under the collective title <i>A Week From Hell</i>. <i>From the Week of Hell</i> <i>'94</i> (see 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-from-the-week-of-hell-94-p11568" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11568</span></a>) refers to the same event. Emin has stated:

</p><p></p><blockquote>
<p>For me, aggression, sex and beauty go together. Much of my work has been about memory, for example, but memories of violence and pain. Nowadays if I make a drawing I'm trying to draw love, but love isn't always gentle  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. <br/>(Quoted in Morgan, pp.59-60.)<br/></p></blockquote>
<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 iconic 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><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, reproduced (colour) p.63<br/>Stuart Morgan, 'The Story of I: Interview with Tracey Emin', <i>Frieze</i>, issue 34, May 1997, pp.56-61

</p><p>Elizabeth Manchester<br/>July 2000<br/></p>
Summary
2005-12-22T00:00:00
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
abortion adults birth to death bleeding caption diseases and conditions emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas female inscriptions nudes people society symbols and personifications vulnerability woman