'My discovery of early Renaissance art was completely by accident in the National Gallery, by just walking down a few more stairs...I'd stay there for about an hour, and then I would come out, I'd close my eyes, and as I pushed the doors, I would imagine my paintings'. –Tracey Emin 

In the first episode of the 2025 Frieze Masters Podcast, artist Tracey Emin, Nicholas Cullinan (director, British Museum), and their host Arturo Galansino (Director General, Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi) discuss their early experiences and evolving relationships within the arts, delving into topics such as intimacy and feelings of safety in the context of an institution, overcoming class struggle and illness, and speaking the truth.  

Full transcript available at frieze.com

Dame Tracey Emin OBE is one of the most important contemporary artists of her generation, known for her autobiographical and confessional work. Nicholas Cullinan OBE, art historian and curator has been the Director of the British Museum since 2024, and prior to that was appointed the 12th Director of the National Portrait Gallery from 2015. They are joined by their host Arturo Galansino - art historian, curator, and Director General of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, and the curator of this year's Frieze Masters Talks programme. 

About the Frieze Masters Podcast

The Frieze Masters Podcast is back for 2025, bringing you seven conversations across art history curated by Arturo Galansino (Director General of the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation in Florence).  

Entitled 'Woven Histories' and recorded live at Frieze Masters 2025, this year's series features artists, curators and thinkers, whose conversations weave together geographies and chronologies, and challenge us to look at history in new and unexpected ways.

Topics range from the evolving relationship between fashion and art to the role of the archive in Black history, the last Mughals and their cultural influence in India and the enduring inspiration of the old masters and renaissance art on contemporary making. Speakers include artists Tracey Emin, Glenn Brown and Antony Gormley, museum directors and curators Nicholas Cullinan, Émilie Hammen, Elizabeth Way and Carl Strehlke, and writers Edward George, Matthew Harle, Christopher Rothko and William Dalrymple.