Emin joins the greats

It's official: Tracey Emin is not only a Young British Artist - now she's a Great British Artist. The Tate, official steward of the national collection of modern British art, today revealed it has acquired eight major works spanning Emin's entire career.

Love it or hate it, the move to secure these works for future generations effectively ushers Emin, 40, and her brand of confessional, personal works, into the canon of British art.

Until Emin's elevation, only eight artists - including Francis Bacon and William Blake - have had rooms of their own.

To underline the significance of its move, Tate Britain has unveiled a room dedicated to her works that will be open "for the foreseeable future" - probably up to a year.

Tate curator Gregor Muir said: "There is no denying Emin's importance within the history of recent British art and until recently the Tate has really only held a handful of her prints - and we really wanted to substantially improve on this." He added: "We've tried to acquire a group of works that speak across a broad range of the artist's practice. That's why they are just not recent works, they span her entire career.

"And it is important to point out these rare works show her central fascination with storytelling, whether through text, photography, video, appliqué or family memorabilia."

Newly acquired is an appliqué piece attacking Margaret Thatcher's decision to go to war in The Falklands, which has never before been seen in public.

One message on the blanket reads: "How did you get away with it, I have always said you should be tried for crimes against humanity ... 1982, a year so many conscripts did not go home - because you, you killed them all."

Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota has repeatedly stated that the gallery is struggling for cash with which to add art to its collection. The decision to acquire so much of Emin's work - for an undisclosed sum - shows just how highly the Tate regards it.

To date, the Tate had owned two major Emin video works and 11 works on paper, none hugely significant.