Ben Vautier

"Ben", BEN VAUTIER (Naples, 1935).
"Life is competition", 1992, from the Olympic Centennial Suite.
Silkscreen on 270 grams Vélin d'Arches paper, copy 171/250.
Signed and justified by hand.
Measurements: 63 x 90 cm.
Benjamin Vautier has been, besides being a visual artist, a public agitator and art critic, interested in social vindication and multiculturalism. For him all art must mean a shock, produce an intense emotion or reaction, and be novel. Although he was born in Naples, his childhood would be spent between this city, Turkey, Egypt, Greece and Italy. In 1949 he moved to Nice, where he spent most of his career. The contact in Nice with artists like Fontan, Malaval, Klein or Arman would be fundamental in the configuration of his style. In the 60's he would travel to New York where he would participate in the actions of the Fluxus group. His work would also be impregnated with conceptualism and minimalism, essential in his conception of art, which for him is not a purpose, but a vehicle, a form of communication.The Olympic Suite is composed of 50 lithographs and serigraphs chosen to represent various contemporary artistic trends. It was published to commemorate the first centenary of modern Olympism. The chosen artists are defined by diverse movements and pictorial currents, from the conceptualism and minimalism of "Ben" Vautier, the lyrical abstraction of Yasse Tabuchi, the painting of Oleg Tselkov who concentrates on the human figure, intensely expressive and treated with forceful forms and intense colors that seek to reflect the conflicts and violence of his time, and finally the work of André Arabis, clearly abstract and geometric.