BEN
Ben Vautier (1935-2025), known simply as “Ben,” was a French-Swiss artist celebrated for his bold, handwritten text works and provocative artistic statements. Associated with the Fluxus movement, Ben’s art challenges conventional definitions of art, authorship, and value. His signature black-and-white canvases, featuring short phrases in cursive script, blend humor, philosophy, and social commentary. Beyond painting, he has worked in performance, installation, and conceptual art, often pushing boundaries to spark dialogue and question cultural norms. His motto—“Tout est art” (“Everything is art”)—captures his lifelong exploration of art’s role in everyday life.
A painting by Ben Vautier, reading C’est Jamais Pareil
Title: C’est jamais pareil
Artist: Ben Vautier (born 1935)
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions:
Signature: Signed “Ben” (bottom right)
Description:
In this characteristically bold text painting, French artist Ben Vautier delivers a simple yet profound statement: “c’est jamais pareil” (“it’s never the same”). Rendered in his instantly recognizable white cursive on a matte black background, the phrase is accompanied by a skeletal hand, reinforcing the existential weight of constant change and human impermanence..
Ben's text-based pieces are both universal and deeply personal. C’est jamais pareil reminds us of life’s inherent unpredictability and the impossibility of true repetition — whether in experience, thought, or art. This painting, like much of Ben’s work, transforms a wall into a space for reflection, where words are the image and meaning is fluid.
Title: Les golden boys de Wall Street fument du crack
Artist: Ben Vautier (born 1935)
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: [Insert dimensions]
Signature: Signed and dated “Ben 97” (lower right)
Description:
Ben Vautier delivers a biting commentary on capitalism and financial culture. The text, rendered in his signature cursive style in vibrant blue acrylic, reads: “les golden boys de Wall Street fument du crack” ("the golden boys of Wall Street smoke crack").
Ben’s use of text as image forces a direct encounter between viewer and idea. This piece exemplifies his flair for mixing irony and protest, confronting the viewer with the absurdities and excesses of contemporary society. Like much of his oeuvre, it raises questions rather than answers — about money, morality, and the messages we choose to display.
Title: Art Bores Me
Artist: Ben Vautier (born 1935)
Date: 2008
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions:
Signature: Signed and dated “Ben 2008” (lower right)
Description:
With his unmistakable handwriting and minimalist style, Ben Vautier delivers a paradoxical statement: “Art bores me.” Painted in white on a stark black background, this work exemplifies his conceptual approach to art, where language is both the subject and the medium.
Art Bores Me functions as both artwork and anti-artwork, in line with the Dadaist spirit Ben often channels. By using the written word as a visual object, he blurs the line between art and statement, and between artist and viewer. In this way, the work becomes a mirror — asking not whether art is boring, but why we look at it in the first place.
