Male artists like Hirst less of force after 40, says Emin

Dame Tracey Emin says male artists peak in their forties, but women have the ability to create powerful works for their entire lives.

- EMMA GUINNESS

The Turner Prize nominee, 61, made the observation on The Louis Theroux Podcast, describing her contemporary Damien Hirst, 59, as a man who was a force when he was young but not anymore.

Dame Tracey and Hirst have both been Turner prize nominees, with Hirst winning the prestigious award in 1995, with his formaldehyde-preserved cow and calf, called Mother and Child,

Divided, the focal piece of his exhibition that year.

“Damien was a young artist that started off with a lot of that belief and a lot of that conviction. He was like a force. And now he’s not,” Dame Tracey said. Men “sort of peak in their forties”, while “women just tend to come and come and come and come and come, so as a woman, you carry on coming all your life until you’re old”, she added.

Dame Tracey is best known for her works Everyone I have Ever Slept With (1995) and My Bed (1993), both of which caused much controversy at the time.