London - She put her sex life on display in her most famous work – My Bed, complete with dirty sheets and used condoms.
But now artist Tracey Emin has revealed that she has not made love for six years – having swapped her partying London lifestyle for a quiet existence by the seaside.
"I don’t think I am celibate, I think I abstain from sex," she says in an exclusive interview in Event magazine. "Abstaining means I don’t want to have sex. Celibate means you might want to, but you don’t."
Emin, 54, who rose to prominence 20 years ago as part of the Britart movement, says she has been single for almost a decade, and lives with her 17-year-old cat, Docket. She is now embracing life in her childhood town of Margate in Kent.
"I have been round the world. I am tired. I want to go home," she says.
"London is so chaotic, it is not a good place for creative people any more. It is such a shame because 20 years ago it was."
She also says that she now rarely touches alcohol.
"You have a choice: you can go out, have a few drinks and disappear for days, recovering, or think, 'I have to get up tomorrow and get on with my work.' "