Bard girl

Tracey Emin�s shock portrayal of Burns

It is the dream pairing of two artists not afraid of celebrating a bit of houghmagandie. Contemporary artist Tracey Emin made her name displaying her unmade bed and creating a tent lined with the names of everyone she'd ever slept with.

Robert Burns wrote songs so sexually vivid they were locked in a drawer during his lifetime and were banned from publication for more than 200 years.

Together they have created one of the most explicit art works at Inspired, a new exhibition of contemporary art in Glasgow celebrating the Bard's work as part of the Homecoming Scotland events. It opens in the Mitchell Library next Saturday.

Measuring only 15 centimetres by 10 centimetres, Emin donated Sweet Thing, a monoprint of a roughly drawn bird perched on a penis. The print was created in 1994, but, like the Bard, Emin kept her creation from public sight - until now.

Emin said she was inspired by one of Burns' most infamous songs, Nine Inches Will Please A Lady, from his Merry Muses of Caledonia, a collection of verse so bawdy and outrageous that they were banned in the UK under obscenity laws until 1965.

Sheilagh Tennant, who curated the exhibition, said she was "thrilled" when she saw Emin's print, describing it as "sweet and gentle". She declined to speculate on how Burns traditionalists would react, however.

"I expect their reaction would differ depending on other aspects of their character," she said. "The normal reaction will be to laugh when you see it. It is a personal interpretation and it shows a sense of humour."

She added that she hoped Emin's work would challenge the "shortbread tin" view Scotland has of its national poet. "There is a tendency in Scotland to prettify and sanitise Burns. I hope that will change, as there is so much more to him than that. He wrote about everything you could imagine from possibly every point of view, including a women's."

Alongside Emin's tiny member will be 50 other Burns-related works by contemporary artists including Peter Howson, Douglas Gordon and the Chapman Brothers.

Lawyers said that even though obscenity laws still existed, regarding the public display of the more intimate parts of the male body, the suggestion that Emin's print could fall foul of the same fate as the original songs was ill-founded.

Professor Robert Black QC said: "No procurator fiscal today would probably think it in the public interest to raise a prosecution against an established artist, even such a controversial one as Emin."

Experts have defended the print's artistic merits too. Dr Alistair Rider, from St Andrews University's School of Art History, said: "People who think that Tracey Emin's print of a bird perched on a phallus is morally repugnant should get out more. In fact if anyone thinks that Emin's print is obscene then they would be well advised to give Robert Burns an extremely wide berth."

Several Burns experts have been less forgiving in their assessment of the print, however. Dr Gerry Carruthers, director of the Centre for Robert Burns Studies at the University of Glasgow, said: "I wish Emin was adding something to the discussion about Burns's song. Even if she was being offensive that might be interesting, but the drawing is just schoolgirl snigger banal. Nothing is being said in this image, artistically, intellectually or even culturally."

Pauline Gray, a researcher from the University of Glasgow who has written extensively on the Merry Muses of Caledonia, said she was disappointed.

"I expected more. It's a bit straightforward and not very well drawn. It doesn't touch upon the complexities of the bawdy songs. I find it interesting that she's used the delicate image of a bird. Maybe she's pointing out that even though it is written from the perspective of an highly carnal, sexual woman, male sexuality is still the driving force behind it. There is no getting away from the fact that some of Burns' poetry is sexually explicit. It still doesn't sit well with some people."

One of the oldest Burns societies, the Burns Howff Club in Dumfries, took a more prosaic approach. David Smith, the president, said: "Anything which brings Robert Burns and his work to the attention of the public, no matter from which direction, is worth a look."