Ben Vautier, also known simply as Ben (born 18 July 1935 in
Naples,
Italy), is a French artist. Vautier lives and works in
Nice, where he ran a record shop called ''Magazin'' between 1958 and 1973.
Biography
Benjamin Vautier was born on 18 July 1935 in
Naples,
Italy to a French family. He is the great-grandson of the Swiss painter (1829-1898).
He discovered
Yves Klein and the
Nouveau Réalisme in the 1950s, but he became quickly interested in the French
dada artist
Marcel Duchamp 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 in the
Fluxus artistic movement, in October 1962.
He is also active in
Mail-Art
Mail art, also known as postal art and correspondence art, is an artistic movement centered on sending small-scale works through the postal service. It initially developed out of what eventually became Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence Scho ...
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's
Documenta 5 exhibition in 1972 shouts, “''KUNST IST ÜBERFLÜSSIG''” (English: ''Art is Superfluous''), and was installed across the top of the
Fridericianum 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 (southern France).
In 1981, he coined the name of the French
art movement 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 ...
in
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
* '' ...
or
Museo Reina Sofía in
Madrid. The
Centre Pompidou in
Paris has Ben Vautier's Magasin, a massive piece, on permanent display.
In 2022 the
MUAC in
Mexico City 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
File:TiouEstArt.jpg, ''Everything is Art'', (1961)
See also
*
a French Wikipedia article to understand what is ''ethnism''
References
Internal link
*
Anti-art
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
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