Emin: I wouldn't get out of bed for Picasso

Tracey Emin has dismissed the work of Matisse, one of the greatest painters of the 20th century, as "purely decorative", and admitted that she has "no time" for Picasso, whom she calls a "complete misogynist".

The provocative artist added that Picasso wanted to "go down in history as the greatest artist who lived. I didn't have much time for him." Van Gogh she describes as a man who merely "cut off his ear and had syphilis.

"Most artists aren't necessarily the best dinner guests," she added, "but they'll be entertaining." Her comments are made in an interview with Radio Times, in which she also seeks to defend her own work.

While stating her belief that she should have won the 1999 Turner Prize competition for My Bed – in which she recreated the scene in her boudoir after she had spent four days contemplating suicide – she also admits that "sometimes I think what I do is totally insignificant and meaningless.

"It's not so easy as everyone thinks. First you have this amazing inspiration and then you need the conviction to do it, and that takes a long time. If people say it's a joke or a confidence trick I'd say they're not very interested in art."