About this program
This talk will explore two works by Tracey Emin through the lens of her hometown, Margate. The seaside town of Margate is not merely a backdrop for Emin, but a vital source of creative inspiration, just as it was for artists and writers past, including J. M. W. Turner, T. S. Eliot, and Charles Dickens. Emin’s identification with Margate, shaped by formative and turbulent years spent there, is central to her artistic persona—indeed, during the late 1990s Emin coined the moniker “Mad Tracey from Margate.” Lily Waterton will examine how Emin's personal mythology intertwines with the social and geographic context of the place she continues to call home.
About Lily Waterton
Lily Waterton is the Jock Reynolds Fellow in Public Programs at the Yale University Art Gallery.
She was previously the exhibition program manager at the Saatchi Gallery, London, where she curated exhibitions including Rong Bao Is Me and Metamorphosis: Innovations in Eco-Photography, and co-organized projects including the touring exhibition Edward Burtynsky: Extraction/Abstraction and Zak Ove’s Abeba Esse installation for Chelsea Flower Show.
She received a BA in history of art from the University of Cambridge and an MA in history of art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, where she specialized in twentieth-century exhibition histories. She is a mentor at Sarabande Foundation, established by Lee Alexander McQueen.
Art in Context
Presented by faculty, staff, student guides, and visiting scholars, these gallery talks focus on a particular work of art in the museum’s collections or special exhibitions through an in-depth look at its style, subject matter, technique, or time period.
Top image
Tracey Emin, I Loved You Until The Morning, 2025. Neon installation, Entrance Court, Yale Center for British Art.
