With a prodigious output spanning a variety of artistic mediums including poetry, music and painting, Billy Childish has been described by friend and fellow artist, Peter Doig, as ‘one of the most outstanding, and often misunderstood, figures on the British art scene’.i
BILLY + TRACI, 1983 is a self-portrait with Billy Childish’s then-girlfriend, the renowned British contemporary artist Tracey Emin. The painting was inspired by a photograph that Childish took of the couple titled Boyfriend and Girlfriend on Bed, Walderslade, 1982 which later featured as part of an exhibition at Lehmann Maupin in 2020, examining Childish’s intimate side through his photography. The photograph, which can be found here, examined alongside the current work, documents and captures the private relationship between the two artists.
