Ben Wrote The Final Word: The Artist Of The “School Of Nice”, Known

There'd be tons of books to write about Ben. As a man, as an artist. A truly unique creator who, in the 1960s, shook up all the fashion and principles of the so-called art society, giving a radically new impetus to contemporary art. His death is part of his life line. A terrible gesture, worthy of a Greek tragedy. A few hours after his wife Annie died of a stroke in their sixtieth year of marriage, Ben went back to their house on Nice hilltops and took his own life…

There’d be tons of books to write about Ben. As a man, as an artist. A truly unique creator who, in the 1960s, shook up all the fashion and principles of the so-called art society, giving a radically new impetus to contemporary art. His death is part of his life line. A terrible gesture, worthy of a Greek tragedy. A few hours after his wife Annie died of a stroke in their sixtieth year of marriage, Ben went back to their house on Nice hilltops and took his own life…

Ben’s grandson Benoît Barbagli, son of the gallery owner Eva Vautier, himself an artist, unveiled the circumstances: as a last gesture next to his lifeless body, Ben left a little note of a now absolute truth: “I can’t live without Annie.” A final declaration of love after a hectic life of permanent turmoil, research, doubt and passion. Considered by many a “saint”, it was no easy matter for Annie to cope daily with a character like Ben … in his search of truth, eager to track down something new, unprecedented, finding his only peace in incessant work and pursuit of ideas. One day Annie confided to me in their house in Saint-Pancrace, on the heights of Nice: “But what would you expect? Ben never left me bored for a single second!”

Sure enough, no calm seas, no flatness, but an extraordinary vital impulse instead. Ben left no one indifferent. We either loved or hated him. His impact on the art scene, however, leaves no doubt.

Ben Wrote The Final Word: The Artist Of The “School Of Nice”, Known — Annie and Ben © DR

An indestructible ego

Making an inventory of Ben’s brilliant achievements is quite an impossible task. We may summarize his work as a desire to wipe the slate clean of the past, of its conventions, propriety and hypocrisy. Between 1958 and 1961, young artists alongside Ben carried out a meticulous mission of undermining different art categories, systematically rejecting institutions and deeply questioning the very notion of work. Everything was therefore permitted. Any daily life event or non-event could become art provided it was meant and signed as such. That’s what the “Fluxus” movement was about.

“Fluxus conveys an attitude towards art. It is a radial movement questioning art and sometimes even human species.” This is how Ben classed it years later, after his own mark of somewhat childish, white on black writing, had invaded the walls of almost all the world museums. With always an omnipresent quest. “I am looking for truth…” — a title, summing up a vast exhibition at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nice in 2001. This statement would stay with him until the very end. Until his final gesture, signed on June 5.

His writings are omnipresent. His “indestructible ego” theory has fuelled a number of newsletters sent to all his friends and… all his enemies alike. Ben would always help or at the very least listen to and understand many young artists. All sorts of poets, even madmen, would invariably gravitate around him … those shivering under the wind of novelty, eager to break down boundaries, to question the world. About a month before his death, Ben hosted yet another debate in his studio on Boulevard de Cessole, north of Nice. Unsurprisingly, it was all about the ego again. This ego that he would use under all sauces, wasn’t it a metaphor for action? A little spur prompting us to move forward, to put everything in question? Ben would never stop kicking the anthill to wake up those firmly seated in their certainties. The most beautiful work he’d given me was: “You never know”. Interestingly, the part of the ego he’d cherish the most was doubt. A strange paradox within the truth, suggesting that we should not be taking ourselves too seriously. Ben was undoubtedly much more complex than we think. Whatever it was, he will definitely remain in the history of 20th-21st century art.

Benjamin Vautier was born in Naples in 1935. An artist of the “School of Nice” and a founder of the “Fluxus” movement in France in the 1960s, Ben developed his work around the rapprochement, boarding confusion, between life and art, art and life. Ego and doubt are at the heart of his credo and quest with a particular interest for landscape, gestures and the world. In his art Ben rubs shoulders with Lettrism, New Realism and Free Figuration acquiring an international reputation with his deliberately childish, white on black writings, with claimed spelling mistakes. His works are part of the largest French (Georges Pompidou Centre, Paris Modern Art Museum etc.) and world public collections (New York MOMA, Cologne Ludwig Museum, Geneva Art and History Museum, Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis etc.)

Personal expositions

2023
“On est tous fous”, Anatole Jakovsky International Museum of Naive Art, Nice
2022
“ La muerte no existe” MUAC retrospective, Mexico
2020
“ Etre Libre”, Domaine départemental de Chamarande, Essone, France
2018
“On peut le faire”, Fondation du Doute, Blois, France
2016
“Tout est art ?”, Maillol Museum, Paris
2015
“Ist Alles Kunst?”, Tinguely Museum, Basel, Switzerland
2012
“Etre”, Château of Malbrouck, Manderen, France
2010
“Strip Tease intégral”, Retrospective at the Contemporary Art Museum, Lyon
2001
“Je cherche la vérité”, M.A.M.A.C., Nice
1995
“Ben, Pour ou Contre”, Retrospective at the M.A.C., Marseille
1987
“Ik Ben“, Retrospective at the MuHKA, Anvers, Belgium
1975
“Ben Vautier”, Bruno Bischofberger Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
1970
“Tout et Rien“, Daniel Templon Gallery, Paris