Benjamin Vautier (; 18 July 1935 – 5 June 2024), also known

mononym A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person. A mononym may be the person's only name, given to them at birth. This was routine in most ancient societies, and remains ...

ously as Ben, was a French visual artist.

Early life

Benjamin Vautier was born on 18 July 1935 in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, to a French family. He was the great-grandson of the Swiss painter Benjamin Vautier (1829–1898).

Career

Vautier 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 wa ...

and the Nouveau Réalisme in the 1950s, but he quickly became interested in the French

dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

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, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...

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 Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

. In 1959, Vautier founded the journal ''Ben Dieu''. In 1960, he had his first one-man show, ''Rien et tout'' in ''Laboratoire 32''. Vautier ran a record shop called ''Magazin'' between 1958 and 1973. Vautier joined

George Maciunas George Maciunas (; ; November 8, 1931 Kaunas – May 9, 1978 Boston, Massachusetts) was a Lithuanian American artist, art historian, and art organizer who was the founding member and central coordinator of Fluxus, an international community of ...

in the

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

artistic movement, in October 1962. Vautier was also active in Mail-Art and was mostly known for his text-based paintings or ''écritures'', begun in 1953, with his work ''Il faut manger. Il faut dormir'' ("One must eat. One must sleep."). 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 history, art historian. Having curated more than 200 exhibitions, many of which have been characterized as groundbreaking, Szeemann is said to have helped red ...

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. The title of the exhibition was: Befr ...

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

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

, Germany. Vautier long defended the rights of minorities in all countries, and he was influenced by the theories of François Fontan about ethnism. For example, he defended the

Occitan language Occitan (; ), also known by its native speakers as (; ), sometimes also referred to as Provençal, is a Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Italy's Occitan Valleys, as well as Spain's Val d'Aran in Catalonia; collectively, ...

(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 art 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 defined ...

of the 1980s Figuration Libre (''Free Figuration''). In 2010 was published ”INTROSPECTION TRUTH ART & SEX”, the Personal Structures Art Projects Number #07 His work is included in some of the most important collections in the world, including

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

in New York and

Museo Reina Sofía Museo may refer to: * ''Museum'' (2018 film), Mexican drama heist film * Museo station, station on line 1 of the Naples Metro {{disambiguation ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. The

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

has Ben Vautier's ''Magasin'' ("Shop"), an enormous piece, on permanent display. In 2022, the MUAC in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

organised one of the most ambitious exhibitions about Vautier, curated by Ferran Barenblit.

Death

Vautier died of

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

by firearm on 5 June 2024, at the age of 88, after his wife Annie Vautier had died from a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

the previous evening.

Gallery

File:Ben Vautier holding a cactus.jpg, Vautier (2007) File:Benjamin Vautier by Olivier Meyer in 2019.jpg, Vautier (2019) by Olivier Meyer File:TiouEstArt.jpg, ''Everything Is Art'' (1961)

References

External links

Obituary
in

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...