When Tracey Emin first met Louise Bourgeois, the first thing she noticed were her strong and muscular hands. The second thing was her breasts. “She had these giant breasts, absolutely giant, and so did I,” the UK artist wrote for the Evening Standard in 2022. “We were these two women, sitting at this table with our giant breasts, it really struck me, it was so strange.”
The pair became fast friends, and collaborated at the end of Bourgeois’ life on a series of prints called Do Not Abandon Me (2009-2010). First, Bourgeois had sent Emin a number of watercolours of pink swollen bellies, veiny, blackened mounds, and abstract male figures, with prominent erections, in silhouette. Two years later, when Emin had finally worked up the courage, she scrawled in ink her own additions, filled with her mordant humour and sincere sensuality.
