Viewing Tracey Emin: I followed you to the end at White Cube Bermondsey

Dame Tracey Emin returns to White Cube Bermondsey with another astounding exhibition, Tracey Emin, I followed you to the end, this week – set to be among the highlights of the season, an epic and emotional journey through love and loss, inspired as ever by Emin’s personal experiences, having survived bladder cancer for which she underwent major surgery in 2021. Her body, another consistent subject in her works, continues to change – and her works are as tender, raw and honest as ever.

The exhibition centres around new paintings, in a visceral, urgent and blazing palette of carmine, crimson and reds with blacks, featuring female bodies in ambiguous states, performing poses that could be read as abject, supplicant or bereft. There are new sculptures too – Emin is a prolific creator – a smaller bronze piece, Ascension, depicting a female torso, and I Followed You To The End, a monumental bronze that dominates the South Galleries at White Cube, a body and a landscape, with dimpled surfaces that closely follow the imprints from moulding.

There are quieter, more meditative moments here too, contemplative works that evoke a reflective ambience and allude to mortality in various ways. There are decorative motifs inspired by traditional Turkish rug designs, Emin’s cats, baths and beds, interior scenes that draw on a different painterly lineage. It feels fresh and new – Emin keeps evolving and remains without doubt one of the most exciting artists of our times.