Ben Vautier

Ben Vautier (born on July 18, 1935 in Naples, Italy), also known simply as Ben, is a French artist.

Ben Vautier
Benjamin Vautier in 2013
Born	Benjamin Vautier 1935 (age 85–86) Naples
Nationality	French
Known for	Lettrism, Performance art
Movement	Fluxus, zero

Everything is Art, Ben "écriture" of 1961.

Ben Vautier (2007)

I will have liked
to be this cactus
in the ass of art...

Vautier lives and works in Nice, where he ran a record shop called Magazin between 1958 and 1973. 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.

In 1959, Vautier founded the journal Ben Dieu.[1] 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 and is mostly known for his text-based paintings or « écritures » begun 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” - or “Art is Superfluous”, and was installed across the top of the Fridericianum museum in Kassel.[2]

He has long defended the rights of minorities in all countries, and he has been influenced by the theories of François Fontan 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 (Free figuration).

Benjamin Vautier by Olivier Meyer in 2019