Tracey Emin shares she is one-eighth Nubian as she unveils National Portrait Gallery collaboration

Artist has created 45 female portraits in gallery’s bronze doors

Tracey Emin has shared that she has Nubian ancestry.

The Turner Prize-nominated artist said that one of her ancestors inspired a portrait currently on display in the revamped National Portrait Gallery.

For two years, Emin has been secretly working on three bronze doors through which guests will enter the gallery, which is reopening on 22 June following a substantial £44m redevelopment. Etched in individual panels on the doors are 45 female faces, which Emin shared in a new interview are inspired by facets of her “soul”.

Writing in The Sunday Times, journalist Waldemar Januszczak noted that one of the faces appeared to be “Nubian”, with a bald head and earrings.

Emin subsequently explained that the artwork in question referenced one of her ancestors, as Emin is one-eighth Nubian.

The Nubian people originate from the central Nile Valley, in the area now known as northern Sudan and southern Egypt. It is estimated that between 300,000 and five million Nubian people currently live in Egypt, according to a recent report byThe Guardian.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Emin said that her arrangement with the National Portrait Gallery was that she was not paid for the work, but did enjoy total creative freedom. The gallery only paid the production fees. “It wasn’t a commission,” she explained. “I did it for free. I think the gallery wants to push the idea of portraiture in a different way.”

She continued: “There’s so many different ways to experience somebody’s, let’s say, soul. It doesn’t just have to be what they look like. It could be a portrait of the soul, for example. It could be lots of different things. So I think they wanted it to move away from the idea of classic portraiture. To stretch it.”

Emin, pictured in 2018 (Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for H)

Two years ago, Emin underwent a series of major surgeries after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of bladder cancer. This included a full hysterectomy, as well as the removal of her urethra, bladder, lymph nodes, and part of her vagina and intestine.

In March, the artist spoke candidly about living without a bladder, after hers was removed in an operation in 2020.

For the article published in The Independent, which was written to mark International Women’s Day, Emin created an exclusive acrylic on canvas artwork, titled “Marriage to Myself”.

She also shared an extraordinary photograph of herself standing in front of a full length mirror in which her white urostomy bag is clearly visible.

Describing the unpredictable nature of her stoma (an opening in her stomach to which the bag is attached), she wrote: “I usually have about a minute before the urine starts to pour out of my stoma, sometimes it’s a small drizzle and other times its completely out of control, its like Russian roulette, I have to dry as much of myself before putting on a new bag, all this now is second nature.”

She added: “I’m in chronic pain. I swear to god that there’s not one single part of my body that doesn’t hurt.”