A public tribute will be paid Thursday in Nice to the artist Ben and his wife Annie, who died on Wednesday a few hours apart after 60 years of living together in this town on the Côte d’Azur, the town hall announced on Friday.
“One without the other did not exist”
Faithful to the eccentricity of the artist with his falsely naive “writings”, the ceremony will begin at 10:33 a.m. on the water mirror of the Promenade du Paillon, the park which crosses the city center. The family calls on those who wish to place flowers at the feet of their portraits and to express themselves in message and drawing registers which will be opened on site. The two coffins will then be taken to the crematorium for a private ceremony in the afternoon.
The artist Ben killed himself on Wednesday at the age of 88 at his home full of works of art on the heights of Nice, a few hours after his wife Annie died of a stroke suffered on Monday, according to a press release of the family. “Ben and Annie, it was a close bond. One without the other did not exist,” Robert Roux, close friend of the couple and deputy mayor of Nice, delegate for culture, testified on Wednesday.
“She corrected him from time to time in his excesses, he teased her constantly and we couldn’t see Ben without Annie and vice versa. “It’s a crazy example of truly amazing love.”
Known for his slogans
Born in Naples (Italy) in 1935, of Franco-Swiss nationality and great-grandson of the Swiss painter Marc Louis Benjamin Vautier, Ben had lived in Nice since the age of 14 and had founded the “School of Nice” there with Arman, Yves Klein and Martial Raysse. Known for his slogans written in white handwritten letters on a black background, he was both an iconoclastic popular artist and a king of merchandise.
“On our children’s kits, on so many everyday objects and even in our imaginations, Ben had left his mark, made of freedom and poetry, of apparent lightness and overwhelming depth,” greeted President Emmanuel Macron Wednesday.
