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As Tracey Emin prepares to return to the spotlight with a major exhibition at Tate Modern, attention once again turns to one of the most discussed and emotionally charged chapters of her early life and career – her relationship with fellow artist and writer Billy Childish.

Looking back at their years together offers a revealing insight into how two very different creative paths emerged from a shared, often painful, personal history.

If you’re planning to visit the exhibition at Tate Modern, it’s also worth booking time to explore the gallery itself. This one-hour discovery tour offers a concise introduction to Tate Modern, its architecture and the key artworks on display throughout the museum.

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Tracey Emin, Tate Modern and the legacy of Everyone I Have Ever Slept With

Emin’s reputation was built on confessional, autobiographical art that challenged how personal experience could be presented in a public, institutional space.

Her most widely known early installation, Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995, listed the names of everyone she had shared a bed with – both sexual and non-sexual partners – embroidered inside a small tent. Billy Childish’s name appeared prominently among them.

Although the work remains iconic in the history of British contemporary art, it will not be shown again. The piece was destroyed in the 2004 Momart warehouse fire, a disaster that also claimed several other high-profile artworks.

The renewed interest around Emin’s Tate exhibition has therefore reignited discussion of the intense relationship that shaped this formative period of her life.

Strangeland, the autobiography by Tracey Emin, offers deeper insight into her upbringing and personal experiences, revealing how they have profoundly shaped the themes and emotional intensity of her work.

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Billy Childish and Tracey Emin: a formative and troubled relationship

Emin and Childish were in a relationship between 1981 and 1985, during the period when Emin was studying at Maidstone College of Art.

Accounts from both artists suggest the relationship was volatile and emotionally difficult, yet Emin has repeatedly acknowledged Childish as an important influence on her early thinking about art and authenticity.

Childish, meanwhile, has often been framed publicly in relation to Emin rather than on his own terms – despite maintaining a long and prolific career as a painter, novelist, poet and musician.

To Ease My Troubled Mind is Ted Kessler’s in-depth portrait of Billy Childish, compiled over the course of a year of interviews. The book presents a richly layered, mosaic account drawn not only from Childish himself, but also from close family members, former partners, past and present bandmates, friends, collaborators, critics and even his therapist.

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The Stuckists and a movement born from a private remark

In the late 1990s, Childish co-founded the Stuckism movement with Charles Thomson.

The name “Stuckism” originated from a comment Emin had once made to Childish, telling him that his painting was “stuck”. The term was later adopted and transformed into a broader artistic stance opposing conceptual art and promoting figurative painting.

Although Childish was a founding figure, he left the movement in 2001. Ironically, public fascination with Stuckism grew largely through its repeated association with Emin and her rising international profile.

That profile was cemented when Emin won the Turner Prize, a moment that further widened the perceived gap between the two former partners’ careers.

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Billy Childish’s upbringing and personal history

Childish has spoken openly about a deeply difficult childhood. He has described being sexually abused at the age of nine by a male family friend, and later forgiving both his abuser and his family for failing to realise what had been happening.

In an interview with The Guardian journalist Ted Kessler, Childish reflected on the long-term impact of that trauma and on his complicated family relationships.

He has also written about being bullied by his father, who was imprisoned in 1981 for cannabis smuggling. On his father’s release and return home, the relationship deteriorated further, eventually becoming physically confrontational.

Changing his birth name, Steven John Hamper, to Billy Childish was a deliberate attempt to distance himself from his father’s influence. He has since described himself, his father and his brother as alcoholics, and has openly acknowledged heavy drinking during his teenage years.

His autobiographical writing also includes accounts of contracting sexually transmitted infections while touring with one of his bands, reflecting the often raw and unfiltered tone that characterises much of his work.

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An underground career by choice

Despite working across multiple disciplines, Childish’s success has largely remained on an underground level.

His books are published through his own imprint, Hangman Books.
His music releases are typically issued independently and in limited pressings.
His art exhibitions are frequently small-scale, one-person shows, often available to view by appointment rather than through major commercial galleries.

This deliberate distance from the mainstream art world stands in sharp contrast to Emin’s institutional and international visibility.

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Billy Childish on Tracey Emin’s success

Childish has been outspoken about Emin’s artistic trajectory. In comments recorded by Ted Kessler, he criticised what he saw as a fundamental difference in their intentions:

“Rather than being about limitation and embracing failure, which my work is all about, she’s using the same methods to advance her career. And by increasing her ego like that, she’s become more lost.”

For many observers, such remarks appeared increasingly embittered following Emin’s Turner Prize win and rapid rise within the contemporary art establishment.

My Heart Is This is Tracey Emin’s most recent publication and is available to pre-order from February 2026. In the book, Emin reflects on her deep commitment to painting, which has become the dominant focus of her later artistic practice.

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Two artists, two radically different legacies

When placed side by side, the scale of Emin’s career now clearly eclipses that of her former partner. While Billy Childish remains fiercely committed to independence and personal expression, Tracey Emin has become one of the defining figures of late-twentieth- and early-twenty-first-century British art.

Revisiting their turbulent relationship, especially as Emin returns to Tate Modern, highlights more than personal history. It exposes a deeper divide between two artistic philosophies – one rooted in resistance to the art world, and the other shaped by a willingness to confront it from the inside.

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