Eric Konigsberg seems to take some glee in pointing out Tracey Emin’s problems with American curators and museum directors in the New York Times. He also relishes pointing out that her sales aren’t very impressive here either:
The difference between her receptions on the two sides of the Atlantic may be due partly to her nationality, as Ms. Emin pointed out — after all, “Jeff Koons isn’t famous” in Britain, she said. Even so, given that the New York art world has become much bigger and more international in scope in recent years, it is notable that an artist who has achieved Ms. Emin’s level of stardom in Europe should struggle to make inroads here.
This is Ms. Emin’s fourth solo show in New York. So far it has not received much attention from reviewers, and Rachel Lehmann, an owner of the gallery, said that 10 of the 53 works there — which include many single-edition prints and embroidered cloths, along with a handful of sculptures and a short animated film — have sold so far.
By contrast, when the White Cube held an exhibition of similar pieces by Ms. Emin six months ago, about three-quarters of them were sold within a week, according to Tim Marlow, a director of that gallery (who cautioned against reading too much into the comparison).
That opening was a major event in the British art world and generated a great deal of press. Rachel Campbell-Johnston, the chief art critic for The Times of London, wrote, “This new show should have been the one she presented at the biennale” in Venice. The Evening Standard’s review raved about the animation piece in particular and declared that “no museum exhibition about feminist art, art about the body or sexual identity in art will be complete without this work.”
Quite Big in Britain, Not Quite in the US (New York Times)
