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Biography

(b Naples, Italy, 18 July 1935). French painter and performance artist. In 1949 he settled in Nice, where in 1958 he bought a record shop, which he used to stage exhibitions. In this gallery, which he initially called Laboratoire 32, and later Galerie Ben Doute de Tout, he held his first one-man show in 1960. Self-taught, he was by this time producing paintings of large handwritten words on a plain background, often coloured black and ... (view more)

Grove Art excerpts - Electronic ©2003, Oxford Art Online

(b Naples, Italy, 18 July 1935). French painter and performance artist. In 1949 he settled in Nice, where in 1958 he bought a record shop, which he used to stage exhibitions. In this gallery, which he initially called Laboratoire 32, and later Galerie Ben Doute de Tout, he held his first one-man show in 1960. Self-taught, he was by this time producing paintings of large handwritten words on a plain background, often coloured black and white, as in Je suis un menteur (1959; see 1987 exh. cat.,p. 24). In an equally subversive spirit he created the Vomit Pictures (1958; see 1987 exh. cat., p. 14), which consisted of black canvases on to which he vomited. In the early 1960s he became associated with FLUXUS, inscribing a ping-pong ball ‘Dieu’ for his Fluxbox Containing God (1961; see 1987 exh. cat., pp. 54–5) and in 1962 taking part in the Festival of Misfits at Gallery One in London. His Fluxus editioned works were often containers filled with everyday objects or materials, such as Dirty Water (1964; see 1987 exh. cat., p. 52), although he became better known in the 1960s for his gestes , performance works such as road-sweeping or beating his head against a wall (1969; see 1987 exh. cat., p. 137). He continued to participate in Fluxus activities in the 1970s, later returning to word-paintings that resembled his early work, such as J’attends la guerre (1981; Paris, Pompidou). Ben relished his role as a debunker of the activities of dealers, critics, art schools and of artists themselves, selling monochrome canvases at cost price and filling his newspaper, Arthèmes , and his revues (e.g. La Fenêtre , 1973), with a mixture of analysis and gossip. After the Galerie Ben Doute de Tout closed in 1973, it was taken apart and reconstructed as a work of art entitled Ben’s Shop (1958–73; Paris, Pompidou). In summer 1990 Ben’s Caravane des Arts travelled around France.  (hide)

Grove Art excerpts - Electronic ©2003, Oxford Art Online

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