Throughout her career, Tracey Emin DBE RA (English, born in 1963) has continuously provoked and shaken the public with her work. As one of the Young British Artists (YBAs), a group that started in London at the end of the 1980s, Emin has experimented with all sorts of media, such as photography, quilts, installations, paintings, and drawing. The protagonist of her art has always been Emin herself, who unabashedly and directly addresses all kinds of emotional universal matters and social concerns that a young, and later middle-aged, woman can face.

In 1999 Emin was shortlisted for the prestigious Turner prize with the work My Bed, showing her unmade stained bed with all kinds of objects, hinting at sex, among other things. Despite not winning the prize, it launched her career, and her bed has become one of the most iconic works of contemporary Western art. The photograph Sometimes I Feel Beautiful (2000) shows Emin as a young woman in a bath, at the height of her sexual power – focused again on her body and its life, candidly suggesting the pleasure a body can give. The word ‘sometimes’ implies the troubles in coming to terms with the emotions and moods we are exposed to. The photograph’s shortening perspective, the reversed body and the strong usage of a limited number of colors make it an intriguing, dreamy and powerful image.