Plaque for God
Ben Vautier
French, born Italy, 1935–2024
1984
A small painted wooden plaque on which Ben Vautier uses synthetic polymer paint to handwrite, in French, a playful aphorism that collapses the sacred and the everyday into a single object.
White, looping cursive scrawled across a deep black ground reads like a hurried, tactile confession—thick paint blobs and uneven strokes make the sentence feel immediate, intimate, and slightly irreverent.
Tied to Fluxus and conceptual art, the piece turns handwriting into a visual and linguistic gesture that demystifies authority, uses humor to pose philosophical questions, and shows how language can be an object of art.
Medium
Synthetic polymer paint on wood
Dimensions
6 5/16 x 7 7/8 x 3/8" (16 x 20 x 1 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Gift
Accession
2957.2008
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
