Ader, Bas Yan

Bass Jan Ader ( real name is Bastian Johan Christian Ader, Gaul. Bastiaan Johan Christiaan “Bas Jan” Ader) Born April 19, 1942, grew up in the small town of Dryeborg in the province of Groningen. Adera's parents were Calvinists, his father died in 1944 at the hands of the Nazis in assisting Jews fleeing the Holocaust.

After the war, Ader studied both at an art school in Amsterdam and abroad, in particular, in the USA - at the Otis College of Art and Design (1965), and also in 1967 received a master's degree in fine arts at the University of Clairmont. He later studied at the College of San Antonio and the University of California.

In 1961, Ader first exhibited several of his works in three galleries in Washington and received laudatory reviews at The Washington Post . This was followed by a series of personal exhibitions in a number of galleries in the United States. Ader gains fame both on the American continent and in his homeland, in Holland.

The main part of his work is a variety of performances, as well as photographs (often fixing the performances themselves) and videos.

One of the most famous works of the artist remains I'm too sad to tell you - a 3-minute video (as well as photographs), depicting how the artist cries for an unknown reason ^[7] .

Anxiety, melancholy, mistake, fall, hopelessness - these are the main processes that Ader is interested in: a series of photographs dedicated to his performance is also well known, during which Ader fell from a bicycle into the canal - a peculiar fixation of the process of falling, error. Thus, fixation and research on processuality are among the leading ones in his art.

Another well-known project is Landslide magazine , published by Ader in collaboration with his friend William Lavit in 1969-1970. In particular, it published interviews with fictional artists or their fictitious works. The magazine, on the one hand, being a satirical reaction to conceptual art, on the other hand, is essentially a work of it.

Another famous series of photographs is “Finding the Beautiful (One Night in Los Angeles)”, created in 1973. Ader's photographs depict lone figures on the streets of Los Angeles. According to the artist’s idea, the series was supposed to line up like a triptych - Ader intended to remove the other two parts at the intersection of the Atlantic Ocean and at home in the Netherlands.

July 9, 1975 Bas Jan Ader sailed from Cape Cod Cape on the Ocean Wave sailing boat, planning to cross the North Atlantic in two and a half months alone. After 3 weeks, radio contact with him was lost, and after 9 months, his boat was discovered by Spanish fishermen 100 nautical miles from the west coast of Ireland ^[8] .

The disappearance of Ader became the subject of speculation - since his body was not found, it still remains unknown what happened to the artist and the reasons for his alleged death.

• Da lstra, Koos; Marion, van Wijk (2017). Bas Jan Ader: Discovery File 143/76 . Los Angeles: New Documents. ISBN 978-1-927354-10-0
• Du mbadze, Alexander (2013). Bas Jan Ader . Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-03853-7
• An driesse, Paul (1988). Bas Jan Ader. Kunstenaar / Artist . Amsterdam: Stichting Openbaar Kunstbezit. ISBN 978-90-6515-063-9

https://www.wikiart.org/en/bas-yan-ader

https://garagemca.org/en/event/bas-jan-ader-and-tehching-sam-hsieh-a-lecture-by-irina-kulik