Once an outlandish member of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who delighted in courting controversy, Tracey Emin is now a proud member of the old school British establishment. Over the weekend, she received a damehood in the king’s birthday honors list and can add “DBE,” short for Dame Commander of the British Empire, to her signature on any new paintings.

The rank is an upgrade from the CBE (which stands for Commander of the Order of the British Empire) that Emin received in 2012. The new title of Dame “has a ring about it,” the artist told the BBC.

The annual honors list is an opportunity for the U.K. monarch to recognize those who have had “an immeasurable impact” on society, and often includes not only famous names but also campaigners, scientists, and entrepreneurs. Those offered an honor have the option to decline.

She became infamous for outré installation works like My Bed (1997) and Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995 but these days Emin typically produces figurative paintings and sketches that are just as honest and exposing. They touch on womanhood, aging, and sensuality as wel as darker themes like abortion, sexual assault, and Emin’s personal experiences overcoming bladder cancer. She was diagnosed with in 2020 and received the all clear in 2021.

Other honors that Emin has received over the years include representing Britain at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007 and being made a Royal Academician of drawing by London’s Royal Academy of Arts in 2011. Her full title is therefore Tracey Emin DBE RA.

Emin is based between London and Margate, where she recently set up her own art school.

The king also recognized Hannah Rothschild, chair of the arts and heritage charity The Rothschild Foundation, with a CBE this year. The foundation recently acquired a newly discovered work by Baroque painter Guercino that subsequently went on public display at Waddesdon Manor, a historic estate established by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in the late 19th century.

Other figures from the cultural realm that were awarded a title by King Charles this year include Alexander Sturgis, the director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, who was also made a CBE, as was Paul Thompson, formerly the vice chancellor of the Royal College of Art in London. Sculptor and performance artist Andrew Logan received an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire).

Several of Britain’s top contemporary artists have been honored by the King or late Queen, including Grayson Perry and John Akomfrah last year and Cornelia Parker and Isaac Julien in 2022. Other important figures in the arts are usually recognized, like the V&A’s chairman Nicholas Coleridge in 2022 or Sarah Munro, director of the Baltic Center for Contemporary Art who became an MBE in 2023.