BAS JAN ADER. I'M SEARCHING... published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, Cologne
ed. by Brigitte Kölle
Exactly 50 years after his ominous disappearance at sea, the Hamburger Kunsthalle is presenting a comprehensive exhibition of the fascinating work of Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader (1942-1975). He is regarded as a key figure for subsequent generations of artists - a so-called artist's artist. His 16mm films, slide installations, photographs and videos, which are legendary in artistic circles, can be discovered by a wider audience in a rare solo exhibition together with extensive documentary material. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the artist's disappearance, this is a rare opportunity to see his work in such a comprehensive exhibition.
Bas Jan Ader's artistic work is at once melancholic and absurd, emotional and conceptual, simple and complex. With several photo series and his famous 16 mm films, he makes a profession out of the fall as a symbol of failure. For him, the moment of losing control becomes a conscious decision. Failure became an inescapable life experience. Throughout his life, Ader was in search of an existential localisation of the human being, the hidden and the miraculous, which he pursued at the risk of his body and ultimately his life. In 1963, Bas Jan Ader moved to Los Angeles, where he set up a second home with his wife Mary Sue. As part of an artistic trilogy he called ‘In Search of the Marvellous’, he set off in 1975 at the age of 33 on a small sailing boat from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on a single-handed crossing of the Atlantic to Falmouth in the UK. However, he never reached his destination. Months later, the sailing boat was found off the Irish coast; Bas Jan Ader remained missing. Ader's longing and romantic search for the ‘miraculous’ (Miraculous) became a parable about human weakness and failure through his disappearance at sea.
The international loans come from the Bas Jan Ader Estate, from American lenders and from collections in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany.
Curator Dr Brigitte Kölle | Research assistant Julia Kersting