Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul – Royal Academy, London

A review of Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul at the Royal Academy. An interesting exhibition. £17 is a steep ask for three small rooms, especially when the RA’s social distancing wasn’t as good as previously. But given it looks like the entire in-person run will be less than two weeks, I can understand it!

Emin / Munch: the Latest Show From the Royal Academy

Within the confines of 2020, it has been a delight to go to the Royal Academy’s exhibitions. Picasso and Paper was really interesting and one of the first things I saw after Lockdown 1.0. I was glad I got to see Léon Spilliaert. Gauguin and the Impressionists was an absolute joy. Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch: The Loneliness Of The Soul is not quite in the same league for a couple of reasons. Firstly because there isn’t quite the same depth to the exhibition. And secondly because the social distancing – previously impeccable – wasn’t quite as good on my most recent visit. [Disclaimer: this visit was between Lockdowns 2 and 3.]

This latter point was a bit of a disappointment. Emin / Munch occupies the same space as Gauguin and the Impressionists – a small set of galleries near the back of the RA. It felt like there were more a lot people this time around, though. And the social distancing wasn’t as well enforced. Not as bad as Artemisia at the National Gallery by any means. But I did spend a lot of time concentrating on where my fellow visitors were rather than enjoying the artwork. Maybe in light of the fact that things are bad enough for most cultural institutions to receive new government loans (oh sorry, “repayable finance“), the good days of open galleries with really controlled ticket selling are over. Is it all or nothing now?

Why Put These Two Artists Together?

It’s really Emin who has paired herself with Munch throughout her career. She has talked about his influence on her work, summarised in the gallery handout as follows:

“…I think mainly I just felt emotionally that ‘he’s one of me’, ‘I’m one of him’, and that he was my friend in art.”

Tracey Emin in conversation with Edith Devaney, in gallery handout, 2020.

Emin has even been commissioned to produce work for a new Munch Museum in Oslo. Her bronze sculpture Mother will be displayed in the harbour outside the museum, the opening of which has been delayed until 2021. So despite a century of difference in their ages, the two are increasingly linked.

These links are apparent in the exhibition, which features a selection of Munch’s works curated by Emin, alongside some of her own paintings and works in other media. Firstly their subject matter links them. Many of Munch’s drawings and paintings of female subjects have been selected here, while Emin is known for the autobiographical nature of her own work. Secondly there is the treatment of these subjects. What was interesting to me was the way that the comparison with Munch helped me to elevate Emin’s work out of the specifics of her own life, sexuality, etc. More on this shortly. And lastly there were the direct references to Munch’s work in Emin’s. By this I mean similar poses, similar distance achieved between the subject and the viewer by choosing not to depict the face or allow the subject’s gaze to meet ours.

And What Does Putting Them Together Tell Us?

My experience of the exhibition was that it taught me a lot more about Emin than it did Munch. I have actually seen very little of Emin’s work. What I know/knew about it was that it is largely autobiographical, very soul-searching, and grabbed a lot of headlines within the YBA movement (think the unmade bed, for instance).

What I contemplated as I looked at Emin’s work side by side with Munch’s, was whether their preoccupations are actually the same. We think of Munch as a very existential artist. Nothing sums up the primal anguish of staring into the abyss better than The Scream, after all. Because Emin’s subject is herself rather than strangers, have I/we judged her too harshly? After all, are both artists not trying to come to terms with internal conflict and the human condition? I think what I’m trying to say is that this exhibition helped me to see the universal in Emin’s very personal work.

Should I Go And See It?

Well. That’s an interesting question. You may not have the option anyway if if can’t reopen, but let’s be very optimistic and assume it will somehow. There are some very nice paintings on display. The Munch watercolours I could take or leave, but some of the paintings were exquisite. Same goes for Emin – most of what you can see here are variations on a theme, but there are some very nice examples.

The fact that it was ‘variations on a theme’ – more or less three rooms of naked women – was for me a downside. It felt a lot smaller than Gauguin and the Impressionists which was in the same space. Maybe part of this was also to do with the lack of exhibition texts. There’s no introduction, no explanation of the pairings of particular works, so you either draw your own conclusions or go away and study the catalogue. I did have a few conversations while looking at the works, but we were through and done quite quickly.

So basically if you like either artist (or both), then go. If you want to see an exhibition, in my opinion there will be better opportunities coming up in London (hopefully). The rest, I will leave to you.

Salterton Arts Review’s Rating: 3/5

Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul until 28 February 2021 (subject to change, check RA website for details).

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