Tracey Emin produces major commission for the doors of the National Portrait Gallery

To mark the reopening of the National Portrait Gallery in June 2023, Tracey Emin was commissioned to design the bronze doors that adorn the entrance on the gallery’s north side. Comprising 45 portraits, The Doors (2023) is said to represent and celebrate ‘every woman’.

Emin’s original drawings were meticulously transcribed onto each of the bronze panels that cover the surface of the three monumental doors, retaining the traces of the artist’s finger and thumbprints in the metal's surface.

Central to the gallery's vision, the panels are the artist's response to the historically marginalised role of women in art collections. This installation serves as a counterbalance to the sculpted roundels carved into the National Portrait Gallery’s façade, which depict prominent male figures from history.

Emin stated: ‘Women in history are greatly underrepresented. I didn’t want to depict specific or identifiable figures. I felt like the doors of the National Portrait Gallery should represent every woman, every age and every culture throughout time.’