Dame Tracey Emin revealed Elton John was the first person to congratulate her after she was made a dame in the King’s birthday honors last year.
The controversial artist, 60, who lives in Margate, Kent, known for her autobiographical and confessional pieces, was welcomed into the Establishment for her services to art.
Talking to the BBC 100 womenthe lady revealed, the Rocket Man singer called her to personally congratulate her on her achievement.
Tracey, who displayed her stained bed and dirty underwear at the 1999 Turner Prize, recalled: “So a bit of a name, the first person who called me and congratulated me was Elton John.
“So I was in bed and he called me on FaceTime and I said, ‘Yeah, I was thinking about you,’ and I said, ‘You know, there aren’t many working-class people who have the honor of being a lord, or a lady, or whatever.
And I said, “But it sounds good, Sir Elton.” And he said, “You have to admit, Trace, that’s an oxymoron.”
‘I said, ‘Yes, Dame Tracey, it’s so brilliant.’ It’s like… it should inspire people.’
Sir Elton was knighted in 1998. He would later be made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, the highest honor the British Royal Family can bestow, in November 2021.
Dame Tracey Emin revealed Elton John was the first person to congratulate her after she was made a dame in the King’s birthday honors last year.
Dame Tracey has also been named a Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of Art, becoming one of only two women in the elite group of artists.
She said: ‘The Royal Academy over the years has always been, in a very strange way, a very masculine institution. In 236 years, or something like that.
When asked if that was the “art world’s ultimate seal of approval,” he responded: “No. The art world’s ultimate seal of approval is the 90,000 people who came to see my last exhibition.
‘That’s the best. So the Shroud of Turin is not the Shroud of Turin if no one goes to see it, it’s just a piece of old cloth.
‘My paintings, or my art when people go to see them, young people, old people, mix of people, I am an artist.
‘Being an artist part of that is a response from other people who look at my work. And that’s the seal of approval. That my art has a reason to exist.’
One of his most infamous works was a tent decorated with 102 names of lovers, friends and family titled “Everyone I’ve Ever Slept With, 1963-1995.”
Sir Elton was knighted in 1998. He would later be made a member of the Order of Companions of Honor (pictured (left to right) David Walliams, Sir Elton John and Tracey Emin attend a special event organized by The Caring Family Foundation )
The controversial artist, 60, who lives in Margate, Kent, known for her autobiographical and confessional pieces, was welcomed into the Establishment for her services to art.
Dame Tracey has also been named a Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of Art, becoming one of only two women in the elite group of artists.
Dame Tracey was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2020. She had her urethra removed, a hysterectomy, lymph nodes, bladder, part of her bowel, urinary tract and half her vagina.
in conversation with the guardian In 2023, he said: “I was in intensive care waiting for the prognosis: whether I was going to live or not. I had four days of waiting and… the most important thing was that I didn’t want to die being a mediocre YBA artist from the 90’s.
Tracey has made a number of other lifestyle changes, including saying goodbye to alcohol and cigarettes.
‘When you think you have six months to live, what you really don’t want is to be hungover or forget what happened the night before. “You need every moment,” he said.
Now that she has stopped chain smoking, the 60-year-old said she can see her surroundings more clearly, a change she has likened to a rebirth.
Cancer also forced Tracey to realize something unpleasant: She had become a person she no longer wanted to be.
She said: ‘When I was young, I was anxious, hungry, excited and learning at art school. And then there was that middle part where I was a complete asshole. The lowest of the low.
At 40 years old, fame and brilliant red carpet events turned her into someone I no longer recognized. It was a change that her late mother, Pamela Cashin, who died in 2016, also witnessed in her daughter.
Following her cancer diagnosis, Tracey had her urethra removed, a hysterectomy, lymph nodes, bladder, part of her intestine, urinary tract and half of her vagina.
Tracey has made a number of other lifestyle changes, including saying goodbye to alcohol and cigarettes.
The artist realized a number of things while awaiting her cancer prognosis, including the fact that she wanted to establish herself as a profound artist.
1999, My Bed: The piece is Emin’s record of several days she spent in bed in the grip of depression. The bed is unmade and the sheets are stained. Various items such as condoms, birth control pills, underwear stained with menstrual blood, money and cigarette butts are scattered everywhere. The play was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1999 and received a very mixed response from the public and the press.
She no longer wanted to be a “snob” and instead sought to revive the working-class girl from Kent who was obsessed with art.
In doing so, he returned to his homeland and re-experienced the joys of Margate, and has now never felt better about where he lives.
Tracey revealed that she got the go-ahead in September 2023.
The artist shared a photo of herself in her hospital gown about to have a CT scan along with a lengthy caption where she admitted that she was “very happy” and glad to be alive.
She discovered she had a tumor in her bladder in June 2020 and had a very aggressive squamous cell cancer, which surgeons feared would kill her within months if it spread to her lymph nodes.
Tracey announced that she had been sober for more than two years and confessed that she missed her removed organs, but declared: “There’s a lot more to me than a hole.”
She wrote: ‘ALL CLEAR. At the hospital about to have a CT scan and see my surgeon.
‘No matter how cold and stoic I am, inside I am full of worry. This time because I’m happy, this time because I feel good… I’m afraid to say I’m happy. But I am, my life is much better, I am stronger and clearer.
‘I have been sober for 27 months and every day life becomes more interesting and I become more concerned and interested in everything around me.
‘I have to be honest… I wish I had my bladder (one that works well and isn’t riddled with cancer). I don’t give a damn about my uterus or my reproductive system.
“But I really miss my vagina, my urethra and those little bloody lymph nodes that kept everything straight.”
‘But today to hear that I have everything clear… It makes me very happy and I feel good to be alive. For me there is much more than a hole.
Before her cancer surgery, Tracey said she stayed awake for 24 hours while her lawyer rewrote her will.
He then sent an email to 70 friends breaking the news of his cancer and telling them, “Do not contact me.”
He was left with a stoma bag as a result of “having half his body cut off” and is sadly still struggling to paint.