Ben Vautier

Benjamin Vautier (Italian, born July 18, 1935 in Naples), known as Ben, is famous for his text-based paintings, such as Art is Useless, Go Home. The artist lived in Italy until the age of 5. After traveling and living in places like Switzerland, Turkey and Egypt, his mother chose to move to Nice in 1949. At the age of 15, he worked as a handyman in a bookstore. He looked at many books on art and began to develop his own ideas about art. He felt that art, to be successful, had to be both new and shocking. In 1958 Ben quit his job and opened a stationery store, which soon became a record store, Laboratory 32, aka The Store. He managed the store from 1958 to 1973, which eventually became a meeting place for young people to exchange ideas. During this time, Ben met Yves Klein (French, 1928 - 1962) and learned about the Nouveau Réalisme, the movement Klein was part of in the 1950s. However, Ben soon became interested in the Dadaist Marcel Duchamp (French, 1887 - 1968) and the musician John Cage (American, 1912 - 1992). Then he met George Maciunas (Lithuanian, 1931 - 1978) and joined the Fluxus movement of the 1960s, famous for its mixture of disciplines and media. In 1959, Ben created the journal Ben Dieu, and in 1960, he organized his first solo exhibition Rien et tout Laboratoire 32. Ben was also active in mail art, which involved sending art, music and poetry in the form of letters. In addition, Ben is a strong advocate for minority rights, influenced by French politician François Fontan and his theories on ethnicity. An example of his activism is the defense of the Occitan language used in several European countries. Ben lives and works in Nice.