Explicit exhibition in Radley by Tracey Emin

‘Please note that this exhibition contains some material of an explicit nature,” reads the footnote at the bottom of the private view invitation. We have been warned.

I can hear the sighs and the sharp intakes of breath now. But boys will be boys… and Tracey Emin will be Tracey Emin. A brave move then, to invite two worlds to collide in the latest exhibition, Love was on Your Side by Tracey Emin, at the Sewell Centre Gallery, Radley College.

Emin is a no-holds-barred artist. She polarises views and, to my mind, this is the beauty of her work. There is no room for detached viewing in Emin’s work, making it impossible not to have an opinion on the raw emotion and subject matter that spills from her. A clever move then for prestigious boys school Radley College to mount (no sniggering, please!) an exhibition of this contentious artist’s work in a time when feminism and female rights are returning to the forefront of our societal consciousness.

The curator of this exhibition, Amanda Jewell, explained the reasoning behind selecting Emin.

“This exhibition will encourage young men to consider their opinions about the ongoing debate, giving them access to a strong female voice to inform their position on inter-gender relationships in the 21st century.”

Aside from the fascinating insight into female valuation on both a personal and public level explored through Emin’s autobiographical works, there are more global lessons that can be learned from this exhibition. Privately educated children are being groomed for prestigious futures, and as such the relationship between self-presentation and public interpretation is one they would do well to consider. Ms Jewell said: “Love was on Your Side ultimately compels greater contemplation of our interaction with one another in an age when the representation and interpretation of identity are becoming increasingly disparate concepts.”

This exhibition shows the series of nine drawings that Emin made in response to the death of Princess Diana. This series of works considers the ext-ent to which Diana became increasingly conceptualised and defined by other people’s voices. Even more poignant then to consider who this exhibition has been curated for — young men aged 13 to 18, the eldest of whom would have been born the year that Diana died and consequently will have been learning about her retrospectively and almost entirely through the media.

Emin’s earliest work in this show, Mother and Child, was created in 1989. This was a year before Emin had her first abortion, which coincided with her “emotional suicide”, a time when she destroyed all of the work that remained in her possession. Emin shot to fame in 1997 when her work Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995 (a tent appliquéd with names), was shown in the infamous Sensation exhibition in London’s Royal Academy.

On a superficial level this new exhibition could be considered a voyeuristic exploration into how the other half live. But to all intents and purposes it would seem that Tracey Emin, once the enfant terrible of the Young British Artists, now lives a life not dissimilar to that of an upstanding Radley College mummy. Challenging preconceptions, it would seem that reputations, as well as looks, can be deceiving.

Mother and Child, 1989

Radley College warden John Moule said: “It is a great coup for us to have attracted some of Tracey Emin’s work to the Sewell Gallery: it will not be to everyone’s taste and it certainly has the power to provoke a reaction… but that is why we are pleased to display it.

“If boys — and others who see the show — engage with questions about modern art and the role of women in it and are challenged to think accordingly, then it will have been more than worthwhile.”

Love was on Your Side is the sort of smart, provocative move that makes Radley College the kind of forward-thinking institution that could make me reassess the merits of elitist education.

Love was on Your Side by Tracey Emin 
Sewell Centre Gallery, Radley College
10am-4pm, until February 13