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Tracey Emin curates first show
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent04.06.08
This striking image of a woman, entitled Visitor, is one of hundreds of works going on show in the 240th Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy.
Produced by art professor David Mach, it is a collage made from hundreds of strips of cut-up postcards and measures almost 6ft square.
Mach is a regular in the exhibition, which was founded in 1769. It shows, and sells, the work of elected artist members of the Royal Academy alongside a selection chosen from open submissions by the public.
Traditionally, the show has been seen as the home of tasteful nudes and decorative watercolours, but this year will have a gallery curated by newly elected Royal Academician Tracey Emin containing "some material of a strong nature". Her exhibits include a sculpture of a zebra having sex with a naked woman by her former boyfriendMat Collishaw.
"I won't disappoint anyone who expects outrage," said Emin, 44, in advance of today's unveiling of the first show she has curated. Fellow RA Humphrey Ocean, who has also curated a gallery of paintings for the exhibition, said Emin had risen to the challenge of curating. "She has taken it very, very seriously," he said. "She has been fantastic in being there and contributing and offering criticism and help. She has to be a bit controversial otherwise you're not getting your Tracey's worth but she has done it in a very intelligent way.
"I would be comfortable going in there with a child or my granny. If art isn't thought-provoking, what is it?"
The show also includes a stainless steel table-tennis table by designer Ron Arad, works by pop artist Allen Jones and Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, and a gallery dedicated to R B Kitaj, who died last year.
Ocean said he was thrilled to include a self-portrait by Margaret Calvert, 72, adapted from the "men at work" road sign she designed half a century ago.
• Summer Exhibition 2008, sponsored by Insight Investment, opens on Monday and runs until 17 August.
