January 31, 2004
A reason to post about Bas Jan Ader
Bas Jan Ader, one of my favorite artists, has had a career renaissance of late. Dead since 1975--he was lost at sea during the second part of a projected three-part artwork called 'In Search of the Miraculous'--his small body of work (no more than forty pieces were made during his truncated career) has lately popped up in group exhibitions in the US and across Europe. This phenomenon is looked at in an extensive article on the artist in the February 2004 issue of Art in America, and is largely credited to the posthumous editioning of his artworks by Patrick Painter Editions, who, along with the artist's widow Mary Sue, shepherd his estate. This is not without controversy, as the article explains at some length. There will be a solo exhibition of Ader's work at London's Modern Art Inc from May 20 to June 27, although I must admit that he doesn't seem to fit so well into the gallery's program (a disconnect made more palpable by noting that the show immediate prior to Ader's will feature Tim Noble and Sue Webster.)
This is all a roundabout way of suggesting that you read the article and, if you're near London, you visit the show. It also offers me the opportunity to point you in the direction of online information about the artist, however scant: the website for an exhibition held several years ago at the UC Riverside Sweeney Art Gallery; the website for a one-man exhibition held last year at the Index Foundation, Stockholm; an article by Bruce Hainley in the March 1999 issue of Artforum; information about the artist on the Galerie Chantal Crousel website, whose Ader exhibition is discussed at length in the Art in America article; and a small website from Otis College of Art & Design, his alma mater.