WASSENAAR.- Sculpture garden Clingenbosch has gained a new gem: the monumental bronze sculpture I followed you to the end (2024) by Tracey Emin. The garden lies just a stone’s throw away from museum Voorlinden and now boasts almost 70 works by artists such as Henry Moore, Sol LeWitt, Jenny Holzer and Giuseppe Penone. Recently, Stages (2024) by the British sculptor Tony Cragg was also added to the collection.

At nearly 7 metres in length and weighing 4.7 tonnes, I followed you to the end is one of Tracey Emin’s largest bronze sculptures. The monumental work represents the waist and legs of a kneeling female figure, whose head and upper body appear to have sunk below the ground. Powerful and sexually charged, it is simultaneously imbued with despair and sorrow. After previous installations at White Cube (Bermondsey) and Palazzo Strozzi (Florence), the sculpture has now found its permanent home in the Clingenbosch sculpture garden. Positioned with its torso facing forwards, when walking around it, the sculpture transforms from what first appears as an abstract form into the lower half of a woman’s body with legs parted.
Tracey Emin: I was thinking about when you would do everything for someone, and about my life, and how everything works, and where and what is the end of life … I could have called the big sculpture anything, but […] all that’s left is a big fat fucking arse sticking up in the air saying ‘yeah, alright, I can take it’.

Gems in the Green

Sculpture garden Clingenbosch is a unique setting where art and nature come together in perfect harmony. Spread across the 25-hectare estate are almost 70 sculptures, each thoughtfully sited in collaboration with the artists. Wherever possible, the works are integrated into the landscape so that the art enhances the woodland – and vice versa. Internationally renowned creators such as Antony Gormley, Armando and Berlinde De Bruyckere have each produced a piece especially for Clingenbosch, often tailored to a particular spot. The result is a distinctive dialogue between art and environment, imagination and nature. This year, the sculpture garden is open to the public from 1 May until 25 September, exclusively by guided tours on Thursdays from 3pm to 6pm.

Director Suzanne Swarts: This is quintessential Tracey Emin: raw, powerful, full of desire yet profoundly vulnerable. We are extremely proud to share this bronze sculpture with our visitors.

British artist Tracey Emin is celebrated for her deeply autobiographical and candid work. She has a unique ability to translate intensely personal experiences, memories and emotions into intimate yet universally resonant paintings, drawings, films, photographs, installations, appliqués, sculptures and neon works. In 2024, she was honoured with a damehood in the King’s Birthday Honours for her services to British art; she has also been nominated for the Turner Prize and appointed Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy. Emin lives and works in London, Margate and the south of France. Voorlinden’s collection includes over a dozen of her pieces.