Tracy Emin My Bed Analysis

Marcel Duchamp was born in 1887 and died in 1968. He began to view art as physical objects rather than a crafted piece such as paintings or sculptures. He pushed boundaries stating that it was the artistic idea itself that counts, not the craftsmanship. He began many object creations that would later lead to a new art movement, conceptualism. He is regarded as the father of conceptualism, creating many controversial and famed pieces during his time. One of his most famed pieces ‘fountain’ completed in 1917 was a porcelain urinal. It is considered a 20th century art icon. The object itself is simplistic enough; a male toilet that looks like it’s been taken from a junk yard or off the shelf in a shop. He bought the item from the show room of J. L. Mott Iron Works, signed his name on the side and named the piece ‘fountain’. (see figure 5). He put ‘fountain’ in a group he called ‘ready-mades’, as he wanted to challenge the traditional perception of creating and showing art, thus creating a

Tracy Emin’s “my bed” (see figure 6) is a prime example. British born Tracy Emin’s created “my bed” in 1998. “My bed” was bought by Charles Saatchi in 2000 for £150,000. It was later sold at auction for £2.54 million. The artists own unmade bed is surrounded by many different personal objects as if left untouched. In context, the work was made after she went through a state of depression, eating little and drinking nothing but alcohol over the course of seven days. The bed gave Emin’s the idea to display her private mess to the public, believing she had created some piece of art in the process. To contrast them both, Duchamp bought a male toilet, signed his name on the object thus completing his intended work. Emin’s created ‘my bed’ over a seven day period, adding a cluster of discarded items to the piece. In the end, both used inanimate objects to create their art works with slight