My Heart is This: Tracey Emin on Painting – Martin Gayford

Tue 13 October, 2026 at 7:00 pm

Join Martin Gayford for a talk richly illustrated with photographs of the artist and her art and a uniquely personal insight into the artist’s extraordinary life and career. During conversations with Martin Gayford for the book, Tracey Emin reflected on painting – how she approaches it, why it matters to her, how it connects to her life. This is Tracey Emin on her own terms: on learning to paint, on living her life after cancer and relearning why painting matters to her above everything else. She expresses herself in her characteristically frank, confessional style that is so familiar to anyone who has seen her paintings.

‘Every image has first entered my mind, travelled through my heart, my blood – arriving at the end of my hand. Everything has come through me.’

Martin Gayford studied art history at the Courtauld Institute and has written prolifically about art. He was art critic of the Spectator, the Sunday Telegraph and Bloomberg News. His books include The Yellow House, Modernists & Mavericks: Bacon, Freud, Hockney & the London Painters and Love Lucian.

Please note Tracey Emin will not be present at this event.