Bas Jan Ader: Death Is Elsewhere

by Alexander Dumbadze

On July 9, 1975, Dutch-born artist Bas Jan Ader set sail from Chatham, Massachusetts, on a thirteen-foot sailboat. He was bound for Falmouth, England, on the second leg of a three-part piece titled In Search of the Miraculous . The damaged boat was found south of the western tip of Ireland nearly a year later. Ader was never seen again.

 

Since his untimely death, Ader has achieved mythic status in the art world as a figure literally willing to die for his art. Considering the artist’s legacy and concise oeuvre beyond the romantic and tragic associations that accompany his peculiar end, Alexander Dumbadze resituates Ader’s art and life within the conceptual art world of Los Angeles in the early 1970s and offers a nuanced argument about artistic subjectivity that explains Ader’s tremendous relevance to contemporary art.

 
Bas Jan Ader blends biography, theoretical reflection, and archival research to draw a detailed picture of the world in which Ader’s work was a vibrant international art scene populated with peers such as Ger van Elk, William Leavitt, and Allen Ruppersberg. Dumbadze looks closely at Ader’s engagement with questions of free will and his ultimate success in creating art untainted by mediation. The first in-depth study of this enigmatic conceptual artist, Bas Jan Ader is a thoughtful reflection on the necessity of the creative act and its inescapable relation to death.

Genres: Art

200 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think partly due to the deaths of David Bowie and Tony Conrad, I felt great sorrow reading this book on the artist Bas Jan Ader. I only came upon his work maybe 20 years ago, which is odd, because he was very much of a Los Angeles based conceptual artist. A lot of work deals with space and falling - meaning that gravity itself pulls you down. On one level, he is sort of a Buster Keaton figure, but instead of laughter, his work is profoundly sad. He has documented his "performances' in photographs as well as on video/film.

"Death is Elsewhere" is half biography and the other part is a critique of his work. It's fascinating to know about his Los Angeles existence, and how he mixed in with other artists of that time and place. He had one foot in Holland, and the other in Los Angeles. There is something very European about his work. Yet, I can see the Los Angeles side of his work as well. Place or location is always interesting or important. It is not actual locations, but the state of his mind or the state of his work and how that works within an American or Europan context. The author Alexander Dumbadze does an excellent job in placing Ader's work in the context of 1970s America as well as noting the mysterious aspect of his work. On one level, it is quite emotional, due to his death by being lost in the sea. For an art project (or was it?) he planned to take a small sailing boat from the east coast of the U.S. to Holland or Europe. Which sounds crazy, but Ader was an experienced man of the high seas, so if anyone could have done this, he could. Sadly he disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean.

What I find interesting about his work, is that it does remind me of Keaton, who I think is the great American artist of the 20th century. I don't think Ader meant to address or comment on Keaton's method of working with machine and weather / nature, but there are similarities with Ader dealing with gravity or fighting against the urge of gravity. So, that alone is quite moving - yet, we know he died a very young man, and therefore we're just capturing a moment of time of this artist. He should have a longer career or life - because the work, although it hints of failure or even death, I don't think that is what his work is really about. I think he was working on something much longer or long-term, but alas, nature took him perhaps by surprise. Fascinating critique/bio on what I think is an important artist.

[elio · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book was my little treat in an art history-less semester; i was delighted by the allusions to donald crowhust, and it has further planted the seed for research i want to do in the future on death as performance/artists at sea. was tough at times, i almost puttered out completely, and i was annoyed by how much mary sue ader-andersen was simply referred to as "the wife," but overall this book is good and i can see why frazer would say it rekindled his faith in art history. also how did i not know how robert smithson died until reading this.

[Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

jeetje. erg interessant en boordevol informatie. ik vond het wel lastig dat dit boek een allegaartje van biografie, kunsttheorie en context uit de kunstwereld is en de onderwerpen heen en weer schommelen. de kunsttheorie en filosofie waren soms moeilijk te volgen en heb ik maar gewoon moeten aannemen. ik ga dit boek zeker aanvullen met erik aders oorlogen en oceanen voor wat meer informatie over de gehele familie ader, en ik hoop dat wanneer het boijmans depot weer opengaat ik een kijkje kan nemen bij aders werken met een geheel nieuwe blik.

[Lukas Grosfeld · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading about an artist through the lens of an art historian can reduce the romantic and perhaps naïve notion one might have of such artist. BJ Ader however was badass. In Search of the Miraculous can mean something different for everyone. What it means for you should not be altered by more historical context.

[Zach Werbalowsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look into the short life of bas jan ader which is illuminating, but since I knew very little pre going in everything was new but also he died so young, so his life sort of was only beginning so for lack of better words there is just not a lot there, but what is there is interesting.

[Emma FitzGerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful, very helpful book about life, influences and work of the Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader. New insights and ideas for thought!