An Encounter Between Tracey Emin and Edvard Munch

“I’ve been in love with this man since I was eighteen.” This confession by artist Tracey Emin, known for her autobiographical and confessional works of art, is at the very foundation of this intense dialogue with Edvard Munch at the Royal Academy of Arts. Attracted, throughout her career, by the expressionism of the author of The Scream, with whom she shares an exploration of the human psyche, Emin, as early as 1998, had already evoked the Norwegian artist in her cinematographic work Homage to Edvard Munch and All My Dead Children. The work begins with a nude and huddled Emin in a foetal position on a wooden wharf overlooking the fjord of Oslo in Asgardstrand, the same where Munch painted various famed works. Now, this highly-awaited exhibition, organised by the Munch Museum of Oslo in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Arts, will reveal just how the painter from Norway represented a constant source of inspiration for this contemporary artist while, at the same time, demonstrating the multifaceted talent of Emin who, throughout the years, has affirmed her abilities with works of drawing, painting, sculpture, video-art, installations and photography.