Bastiaan Johan Christiaan "Bas Jan" Ader (born 19 April 1942 Winschoten, The Netherlands - lost at sea in 1975 between Cape Cod, Massachusetts and Ireland) was a conceptual artist, performance artist, photographer and filmmaker. He lived in Los Angeles for the last 10 years of his life. Ader's work was in many instances presented as photographs and film of his performances. He also made performative installations, including Please Don't Leave Me (1969).

Youth [edit]

Ader grew up in Winschoten, The Netherlands, cared for by his mother, as one of the 2 sons of Christian minister Bastiaan Jan Ader and Johanna Adriana Ader-Appels. His father had been executed in 1944 by the German occupying force, after his involvement in the 'underground' resistance movement.

Education [edit]

During adolescence Ader took art classes at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, and later in the United States during a study abroad program. Ader graduated from the Otis College of Art and Design in 1965 with a BFA, and from the Claremont Graduate School in 1967. After graduating, Ader taught at various institutions, including Mount San Antonio College, Immaculate Heart College, and the University of California, Irvine.

Famous works [edit]

I'm too sad to tell you (1970)

Ader's most popular work is his 1970 silent short film piece, I'm too sad to tell you, that consists of the artist crying in front of a camera after a brief title.^[1] The interests and concerns in Ader's oeuvre locate him in similar art historical tropes of conceptual and performance artists of the 1970s, such as Chris Burden and Bruce Nauman. Like many conceptual art works of the 1970s, his works were recorded in descriptive notes and statements destined to have flexible and repeated incarnations.

Many myths have spread out about Ader's disappearance at sea, leading to speculations about supposedly lost works resurfacing.

Death [edit]

Ader was lost at sea while attempting a single-handed west-east crossing of the Atlantic in a 13 ft pocket cruiser, a modified Guppy 13 named "Ocean Wave". The passage was part of an art performance titled "In Search of the Miraculous". Radio contact broke off three weeks into the voyage, and Ader was presumed lost at sea. The boat was found after 10 months, floating partially submerged 150 miles West-Southwest of the coast of Ireland. His body was never found. The boat, after being recovered by the Spanish fishing vessel that found it, was taken to Coruña. The boat was later stolen.^[2] Ader's mother wrote the poem From the deep waters of sleep after having what she described as a premonition of his death.

Revival [edit]

Ader's revival began in the hands of artists, notable is Christopher Williams Bouquet for Bas Jan Ader and Christopher D'Arcangelo, 1991, with many later artists finding inspiration in the artist's romantic take on Conceptualism. With a limited body of work, primarily film and video, exhibitions of his work are difficult though two important retrospectives have occurred, one at the Sweeney Art Gallery in Riverside in 1999, curated by Brad Spence^[3] with catalogue contributions by Thomas Crow, Jan Tumlir, and Brad Spence, and another organized by Camden Arts Centre, London and the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Rotterdam, in cooperation with Kunsthalle Basel titled Bas Jan Ader – Please don’t leave me, accompanied by a catalogue published in English by Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, edited by Rein Wolfs, with texts by Erik Beenker and Jörg Heiser, amongst others.

The 2006 documentary film Here is Always Somewhere Else, followed up on Ader's recognition in the contemporary art world. As seen through the eyes of fellow Dutch emigrant filmmaker Rene Daalder, the film attempts to chronicle the life and work of Bas Jan Ader. Here is Always Somewhere Else, was released on DVD in November 2008 and features a collection of Bas Jan's film and video works.^[4]

Additionally, Erika Yeomans' conceptual documentary In Search of Bas Jan's Miraculous (1998, 40 mins., mixed media) on the life and art of Bas Jan continues to screen in various festivals and galleries, most recently as part of Dutch Kultprom Russian Tour of Bas Jan's videos. The project was also featured on This American Life in 1996.^[5] In 2009, 2nd Cannons Publications from Los Angeles released "Rarely Seen Bas Jan Ader Film," a flip-book of a supposed lost Ader film. ^[6]

References [edit]

Specific references

Other sources

• Jan Verwoert, Bas Jan Ader: In Search of the Miraculous, London: Afterall Books, 2006. ISBN 1-84638-002-2.

• Maike Aden-Schraenen, In Search of Bas Jan Ader, Berlin: Logos Verlag, 2013. ISBN 978-3-8325-2295-7.

External links [edit]

• Official Bas Jan Ader website
• Here is Always Somewhere Else official website
• I'm too sad to tell you on YouTube
• Distinguished Alumni page from the Otis College of Art and Design
• The Artist Who Sailed to Oblivion from the Telegraph online.
• Nine artworks by Bas Jan Ader in the online collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, with images, and descriptions.