Love is Words, 1958 22 x 27 cm, oil on canvas © Collection of the artist

Bringing together more than 200 works, most of them from his personal and private collections, this retrospective reveals the multiple facets of an iconoclastic and provocative artist who has challenged unique thought for over 50 years.

Since the late 1950s, Ben Vautier (born in 1935), Franco-Swiss artist living in Nice, better known under the name of Ben, himself says: "I sign everything" - thus commenting, by his images and actions, the world as a whole. Each sentence, as brief as it is, conceals an immense potential of capital questions on truth in art, the role of the artist in society or the relationship between art and life. His writings cover a very wide range: intimate reflections or postmodern theories on art, anthropology or even religion. They reflect his personal questions and show a critical mind that does not hesitate to question everything and everyone - including his own ego. By the way she mixes art, philosophy and everyday life, Ben's work is unique. From Marcel Duchamp's ready-mades, Ben systematically perpetuates the idea that a work of art is recognizable not by its form but by its signature.

Who Doubt Exists, 2014 - 100 x 100 cm, acrylic on canvas - Collection Danièle Roux, Saint-Paul de Vence © Richard Sahel

Ben was one of the first artists in Europe to bring art to the streets, from 1959, with his famous "street actions", which made him one of the major protagonists of the Fluxus movement in Europe. Le Magasin (1958-1973), an insignificant work of Ben, was originally a second-hand record store in Nice, which in the 1960s became the meeting point for the international artistic scene and the place for numerous actions. and exhibitions. Artist, performer, unifier, inventor of a new language and art thinker, he also founded the School of Nice alongside Arman, Yves Klein and Martial Raysse with whom he was closely linked.

The route of the exhibition begins with the historical section, under the direction of curator Andres Pardey. A selection of key works from 1958 to 1978 illustrate the beginnings of Ben's career. These testimonies retrace Ben's quest for an abstract formal language of his own and lead to a set of "first writings". The whole of his artistic repertoire is presented in this part of the exhibition: numerous “street actions” from the 1960s, great moments of “Fluxus” in Nice, up to Ben's position as a theorist and art philosopher. All of this takes place in a relatively short period and forms the basis of his later work.

A major figure in the contemporary art scene in France, Ben invests the second part of his most recent installations.

Ben's universe is thus given to see, in a succession of moments, from his "small ideas" to "new writing", passing through "mirrors", "photography", "time" and the "Dead".

Maillol Museum
61 rue de Grenelle
75007 Paris
Phone: 01 42 22 57 25
From 10:30 a.m. to 18:30 p.m. Friday evening until 21:30 p.m.

Full price: € 12
Reduced price: 10 €
Free for children under 7 years old.

For more information : www.museemaillol.com