Ben Vautier Mixed Media
Benjamin Vautier was born in 1935, in Naples, Italy, to a French family. He was the great-grandson of the Swiss painter Marc Louis Benjamin Vautier (1829–98). He discovered Yves Klein and the Nouveau Réalisme in the 1950s, but he quickly became interested in the French Dada artist Marcel Duchamp and the music of John Cage.
In 1959, Vautier founded the journal Ben Dieu. In 1960, he had his first one-man show, Rien et tout in Laboratoire 32.
Vautier joined George Maciunas in the Fluxus artistic movement, in October 1962. He was also active in Mail-Art and was mostly known for his text-based paintings or écritures, which 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.
Vautier long defended the rights of minorities in all countries and was influenced by the theories of François Fontan about ethnism. For example, he defended the Occitan language (southern France). In 1981, he coined the name of the French art movement of the 1980s Figuration Libre (Free Figuration).
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(Biography provided by Gallery 55 TLV)
1960s Conceptual Ben Vautier Mixed Media
Mixed Media
1960s Conceptual Ben Vautier Mixed Media
Mixed Media
20th Century Conceptual Ben Vautier Mixed Media
Paper, Pencil
1990s Conceptual Ben Vautier Mixed Media
Mixed Media, Permanent Marker
20th Century Conceptual Ben Vautier Mixed Media
Mixed Media, Monoprint, Monotype
20th Century Conceptual Ben Vautier Mixed Media
Mixed Media, Monoprint, Monotype
2010s Conceptual Ben Vautier Mixed Media
Paint, Ink, Mixed Media, Board, Pencil, Photogram
20th Century Conceptual Ben Vautier Mixed Media
Mixed Media, Monoprint, Monotype
20th Century Conceptual Ben Vautier Mixed Media
Mixed Media, Monoprint, Monotype
20th Century Conceptual Ben Vautier Mixed Media
Mixed Media, Monoprint, Monotype
20th Century Conceptual Ben Vautier Mixed Media
Mixed Media, Monoprint, Monotype
20th Century Conceptual Ben Vautier Mixed Media
Mixed Media, Monoprint, Monotype
2010s Conceptual Ben Vautier Mixed Media
Canvas, Crayon, Ink, Color Pencil
20th Century Conceptual Ben Vautier Mixed Media
Mixed Media, Monoprint, Monotype