Museum and Gallery Top Picks: 11 - 17 February

10 February 2019 Billie Manning

Spotlight on: Tracey Emin: A Fortnight of Tears at White Cube
 
Tracey Emin is a modern artistic icon. Much of her work is instantly recognisable, from her neon signs to her iconic Bed, as is her image itself – the dark hair, the twisted, frowning mouth. And this is what you will be seeing a lot of, in this exhibition: Emin’s image. A large part of the show consists of more than 50 blown-up phone camera self-portraits, taken during periods in which Emin has suffered from debilitating insomnia.
 
Of course, as Emin is using the entirety of White Cube’s exhibition space – yes, all 5,500 square feet of it – this isn’t the only series of work you will be seeing from Emin in this show. The exhibition also includes sculptures - a giant bronze preliminary model of Emin’s commission for Oslo’s Museum Island particularly impresses despite being smaller still than the final sculpture will be - paintings, drawings, and films. One film shows the box containing the ashes of Emin’s mother, who died in 2016.
 
The overall effect is profound and emotional, as you might expect from an exhibition titled A Fortnight of Tears, but Emin’s work never feels overwrought, or exploitative of her emotions. In a clinical, clean world, Emin is the necessary mess; her work shows the necessary, beautiful ugliness of being.


Is This Tomorrow? at Whitechapel Galleries

The Best of the Rest:
Hanna Moon & Joyce Ng: English as a Second Language at Somerset House
From two of fashion’s most exciting photographers, this exhibition celebrates the vitality of international perspectives
25 January - 28 April
 
Don McCullin at Tate Britain
Impactful exhibition on McCullin’s 60 years of landscapes and war photography
5 February – 6 May

Is This Tomorrow? at Whitechapel Gallery
Visions of the future from a bevy of artists, taking inspiration from landmark 1956 exhibition This Is Tomorrow
14 February – 12 May
 
Unclaimed: free Barbican installation investigates what it means to grow old today
11 February – 3 May