Ben Vautier, also known simply as Ben (born 18 July 1935 in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

), is a French artist. Vautier lives and works in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, where he ran a record shop called ''Magazin'' between 1958 and 1973.

Biography

Benjamin Vautier was born on 18 July 1935 in

to a French family. He is the great-grandson of the Swiss painter (1829-1898). He discovered

Yves Klein Yves Klein (; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein w ...

and the

Nouveau Réalisme Nouveau réalisme (French: new realism) refers to an artistic movement founded in 1960 by the art critic Pierre Restany and the painter Yves Klein during the first collective exposition in the Apollinaire gallery in Milan. Pierre Restany wrot ...

in the 1950s, but he became quickly interested in the French

dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...

artist

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

and the music of

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

. In 1959, Vautier founded the journal ''Ben Dieu''. In 1960, he had his first one-man show, ''Rien et tout'' in ''Laboratoire 32''. Ben joined

George Maciunas George Maciunas (; lt, Jurgis Mačiūnas; November 8, 1931 – May 9, 1978) was a Lithuanian American artist, born in Kaunas. A founding member and the central coordinator of Fluxus, an international community of artists, architects, composers ...

in the

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...

artistic movement, in October 1962. He is also active in Mail-Art and is mostly known for his text-based paintings or écritures began in 1953, with his work ''Il faut manger. Il faut dormir''. Another example of the latter is "L'art est inutile. Rentrez chez vous" (Art is Useless, Go Home). A notable work made for

Harald Szeemann '' Harald Szeemann (11 June 1933 – 18 February 2005) was a Swiss curator, artist, and art historian. Having curated more than 200 exhibitions, many of which have been characterized as groundbreaking, Szeemann is said to have helped redefine the r ...

Documenta 5 documenta 5 was the fifth edition of documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition. It was held between 30 June and 8 October 1972 in Kassel, West Germany. The artistic director was Harald Szeemann '' Harald Szeemann (11 June 1933 – 18 ...

exhibition in 1972 shouts, “''KUNST IST ÜBERFLÜSSIG''” (English: ''Art is Superfluous''), and was installed across the top of the

Fridericianum The Fridericianum is a museum in Kassel, Germany. Built in 1779, it is one of the oldest public museums in Europe.

museum in Kassel, Germany. He has long defended the rights of minorities in all countries, and he has been influenced by the theories of

François Fontan François Fontan (7 February 1929 – 19 December 1979) was a French politician. He was born into a family which came from Gascony. Raised in a monarchic family, he first joined a political party, the Mouvement Socialiste Monarchique when he wa ...

about ethnism. For example, he has defended the

Occitan language Occitan (; oc, occitan, link=no ), also known as ''lenga d'òc'' (; french: langue d'oc) by its native speakers, and sometimes also referred to as ''Provençal'', is a Romance languages, Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Ital ...

(southern France). In 1981, he coined the name of the French

art movement An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defin ...

of the 1980s

Figuration Libre Figuration Libre ("Free Figuration") is a French art movement which began in the 1980s. It is the French equivalent of Bad Painting and Neo-expressionism in America and Europe, Junge Wilde in Germany and Transvanguardia in Italy. Artists in the mo ...

(''Free Figuration''). His work is included in some of the most important collections in the world, including

MOMA Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; Ang ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Museo Reina Sofía Museo may refer to: * Museo, 2018 Mexican drama heist film *Museo (Naples Metro) Museo is a station on line 1 of the Naples Metro. It was opened on 5 April 2001 as the eastern terminus of the section of the line between Vanvitelli and Museo. O ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. The

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

has Ben Vautier's Magasin, a massive piece, on permanent display. In 2022 the MUAC in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

organized one of the most ambitious exhibitions about Vautier, curated by

Ferran Barenblit Ferran Barenblit (born 1968, Buenos Aires) is an Argentine museum director. He studied Art History at the Universitat de Barcelona (1991) and Museology at New York University (1995). Ferran Barenblit was director of the Centre d'Art Santa Mònic ...

. File:Ben Vautier holding a cactus.jpg, Vautier (2007) File:Benjamin Vautier by Olivier Meyer in 2019.jpg, Vautier (2019) by

Olivier Meyer Olivier Meyer is a French photographer born in 1957. He lives and works in Paris, France. Biography His photo-journalism was first published in France-Soir Magazine and subsequently in the daily France Soir in 1981. Starting from 1989, a sele ...

File:TiouEstArt.jpg, ''Everything is Art'', (1961)

References

Internal link

Anti-art Anti-art is a loosely used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Somewhat paradoxically, anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the vantage poi ...

Official website

Official website
French mixed-media artists French contemporary artists Fluxus 1935 births Living people Artists from Nice 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists French male painters 21st-century French painters 21st-century French male artists {{France-artist-stub

Biography

See also

References

Internal link

Official website