Bas Jan Ader
Bas Jan Ader
Water's Edge
2019
Installation view at 313 N. Fairfax Avenue
Bas Jan Ader
Water's Edge
2019
Installation view at 313 N. Fairfax Avenue
Bas Jan Ader
Water's Edge
2019
Installation view at 313 N. Fairfax Avenue
Bas Jan Ader
Water's Edge
2019
Installation view at 313 N. Fairfax Avenue
Bas Jan Ader
Water's Edge
2019
Installation view at 313 N. Fairfax Avenue
Bas Jan Ader
Water's Edge
2019
Installation view at 313 N. Fairfax Avenue
Bas Jan Ader
Water's Edge
2019
Installation view at 313 N. Fairfax Avenue
Bas Jan Ader
The boy who fell over Niagara Falls
1972
Performance with sound documented by black and white video tape w/ sound transferred to digital media and thirteen black and white vintage photographs
(Seven unique photographs of the performance at art & project, Amsterdam April 1972 on view)
Dimensions variable
Duration: 16’42”
Photographs: 3 x 5 in / 7.6 x 12.7 cm each (image size), stamped 1972 verso
BJA_071
Unique
Bas Jan Ader
The boy who fell over Niagara Falls
1972
Performance with sound documented by black and white video tape w/ sound transferred to digital
media and thirteen black and white vintage photographs
Seven unique photographs of the performance at art & project, Amsterdam April 1972
BJA_071
Bas Jan Ader
The boy who fell over Niagara Falls
1972
Performance with sound documented by black and white video tape w/ sound transferred to digital
media and thirteen black and white vintage photographs
Seven unique photographs of the performance at art & project, Amsterdam April 1972
BJA_071
Bas Jan Ader
The boy who fell over Niagara Falls
1972
Performance with sound documented by black and white video tape w/ sound transferred to digital
media and thirteen black and white vintage photographs
Detail view unique photographs of the performance at art & project, Amsterdam April 1972
BJA_071
Bas Jan Ader
Study for Farewell to faraway friends
1971
Set of two color vintage prints (framed)
Two parts: 3 ½ x 3 ½ in / 8.9 x 8.9 cm each (image size)
Unique
BJA_078
Bas Jan Ader
Study for Farewell to faraway friends
1971
Detail view of image 1 of 2
Set of two color vintage prints (framed)
Two parts: 3 ½ x 3 ½ in / 8.9 x 8.9 cm each (image size)
Unique
BJA_078
Bas Jan Ader
Study for Farewell to faraway friends
1971
Detail view of image 1 of 2
Set of two color vintage prints (framed)
Two parts: 3 ½ x 3 ½ in / 8.9 x 8.9 cm each (image size)
Unique
BJA_078
Bas Jan Ader
Study for Farewell to faraway friends
1971
Detail view of image 2 of 2
Set of two color vintage prints (framed)
Two parts: 3 ½ x 3 ½ in / 8.9 x 8.9 cm each (image size)
Unique
BJA_078
Bas Jan Ader
Study for Farewell to faraway friends
1971
Detail view of image 2 of 2
Set of two color vintage prints (framed)
Two parts: 3 ½ x 3 ½ in / 8.9 x 8.9 cm each (image size)
Unique
BJA_078
Bas Jan Ader
Study for Farewell to faraway friends
1971
Color vintage print (framed)
3 ½ x 3 ½ in / 8.9 x 8.9 cm (image size)
Unique
BJA_079
Bas Jan Ader
Study for Farewell to faraway friends
1971
Detail view
Color vintage print (framed)
3 ½ x 3 ½ in / 8.9 x 8.9 cm (image size)
Unique
BJA_079
Bas Jan Ader
Broken Fall (organic), Amsterdamse Bos, Holland
1971
Black and white 16mm film, silent transferred to digital media
Duration: 1'26"
Edition of 3
BJA_043
Bas Jan Ader
Broken fall (organic), Amsterdamse Bos, Holland
1971/1994
Silver gelatin print (framed)
18 x 25 in / 45.7 x 63.5 cm (image size)
29 ½ x 36 in / 74.9 x 91.4 cm (framed)
Edition of 3
BJA_011.4
Bas Jan Ader
Fall 2, Amsterdam (Book Set)
1970
Set of ten black and white vintage prints (framed)
Ten parts: 3 ½ x 5 in / 8.9 x 12.7 each (image size)
Unique
BJA_059
Bas Jan Ader
Fall 2, Amsterdam (Book Set)
1970
Detail view of three of 10 works
Set of ten black and white vintage prints (framed)
Ten parts: 3 ½ x 5 in / 8.9 x 12.7 each (image size)
Unique
BJA_059
Bas Jan Ader
Fall 2, Amsterdam (Book Set)
1970
Detail view of image 3 from the 10 works
Set of ten black and white vintage prints (framed)
Ten parts: 3 ½ x 5 in / 8.9 x 12.7 each (image size)
Unique
BJA_059
Bas Jan Ader
Untitled (The elements)
1971/2003
C-type print (framed)
11 x 14 in / 27.8 x 35.5 cm (image size)
Edition of 3
BJA_003
Bas Jan Ader
Untitled (The elements)
1971/2003
Detail
C-type print (framed)
11 x 14 in / 27.8 x 35.5 cm (image size)
Edition of 3
BJA_003
Bas Jan Ader
Study for I'm too sad to tell you
1971
Installation view
Silver gelatin print (framed)
9 x 6 ¾ in / 22.9 x 17.2 cm (image size) each
Unique
BJA_019 & BJA_020
Bas Jan Ader
Study for I'm too sad to tell you
1971
Silver gelatin print (framed)
9 x 6 ¾ in / 22.9 x 17.2 cm (image size)
Unique
BJA_019
Bas Jan Ader
Study for I'm too sad to tell you
1971
Silver gelatin print (framed)
9 x 6 ¾ in / 22.9 x 17.2 cm (image size)
Unique
BJA_020
Bas Jan Ader
Study for Westkapelle Lighthouse, Holland
1971
Color vintage print (framed)
3 ½ x 3 ½ in / 8.9 x 8.9 cm (image size)
Unique
BJA_077
Bas Jan Ader
Study for Westkapelle Lighthouse, Holland
Detail
1971
Color vintage print (framed)
3 ½ x 3 ½ in / 8.9 x 8.9 cm (image size)
Unique
BJA_077
Bas Jan Ader
Study for Farewell to faraway friends
1971
Color vintage print (framed)
3 ½ x 3 ½ in / 8.9 x 8.9 cm image size
9 x 8 ¾ x 1 ¾ in / 22.9 x 22.2 x 4.5 cm framed dimensions
Unique
BJA_081
Anna Meliksetian and Michael Briggs are pleased to present Water’s Edge, the second exhibition in the gallery of the work of Bas Jan Ader.
From Bas Jan Ader’s childhood in Holland learning to sail on the Eems-Dollard Esturary, playing truant from school to go out on the sea with the local prawn fisherman as a teen, wearing only clothing of a particular shade of ocean blue, through his many seminal and highly influential art works to his final fateful ocean voyage at the age of 33, water has been a leitmotif throughout his life. Water’s Edge explores how this is manifest literally and metaphorically in art works Ader made in the period of 1971 and 1972.
Ader’s overarching and most significant concern during this period was the notion of the Fall where, as Ader has stated, “gravity made itself master over me.” While the embodiment of these philosophical ideas in the art works runs through nearly the entire exhibition, it is notable that the actions are situated alongside bodies of water, from the Pacific coast in Los Angeles, to the canals and rivers of Amsterdam, to the oceanside of Sweden. The Fall, for Ader the philosophical problem of free will and determinism, whether it is the literal physical fall of body to earth or the metaphorical fall of mankind (Ader’s parents were pastors) is made apparent throughout these works, but the notion of falling also asserts itself in the element of water, the waterfall, the falling of tears on the artist’s face and his disappearance into the water after falling into the canal as seen at the end of Fall 2, Amsterdam. These works are juxtaposed in the exhibition with works evoking the 19th century tradition of the sublime, the contemplative and philosophical Romantic artist gazing out to sea and to the vastness of nature in the various Study for Farewell to faraway friends, 1971 photos and then again in front of the crashing sea and rocky landscape in The elements, 1971.
In the performance work The boy who fell over Niagara Falls, 1972, the artist reads a text from the March 1972 issue of the then popular magazine Reader’s Digest recounting the true story of a young boy’s accidental plunge over the edge of the 175 foot high roaring waterfall and his miraculous survival. As Ader reads the text in a flat, affectless voice, he slowly and methodically sips from a glass of water and the performance concludes when the glass is empty. The work was performed by Ader three times publicly at Cal Arts, Valencia, California, at art & project, Amsterdam, and at Kabinett für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremehaven as well as privately at the home of artist William Leavitt, as in the video work shown.
The vintage photos exhibited alongside the video are from the final performance of the work at the Kabinett in Germany, which was notable as Ader added for the first and only time a final element, whereby upon finishing the glass of water after the word “death” in the text, thus ending the performance, he left the room crying with tears falling down his face. A counter point prefiguring this action are the photos hung opposite in the gallery,
two works from the small photographic series entitled Study for I’m too sad to tell you, 1971 made alongside the seminal film work in the year prior showing the artist in tears. The Kabinett photos are also notable as they are the last work Ader made that reveal his face, despite the artist himself being a protagonist in subsequent works. The Niagara Falls story itself, the survival of the young boy in overwhelming and dire circumstances, what could be considered a miracle, hopeful and inspiring, cheating fate and overcoming destiny, foreshadows Ader’s trans-Atlantic sailing voyage at its beginning, part of what ultimately became his final art work in 1975, the uncompleted grand trilogy In search of the miraculous.
The work of Bas Jan Ader (1942 – missing at sea 1975) has been featured in many institutional solo exhibitions including the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Kunsthalle Basel, the Camden Art Center, London, the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea / CGAC, Santiago Compostela, Spain and the Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna / MAMBO, Italy as well as the Venice and Sao Paolo Biennials in 2017 and 2012 respectively. Recent group exhibitions include shows at Los Angeles County Museum of Art / LACMA, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte, Turin and the Musée d’art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, among many others.
In summer 2019, Ader’s work can be seen in the major three person exhibition Disappearing – California c. 1970: Bas Jan Ader, Chris Burden and Jack Goldstein curated by Philipp Kaiser, at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. A catalog by Prestel is available.
Other current exhibitions Summer 2019 include Poetics of Emotion, La Caixa Forum, Zaragoza Spain, After Leaving | Before Arriving, Kaunas Biennial, Kaunas, Lithuania, Durch die Blume | Florale Metamorphosen, Kunstverein Heilbronn, Heilbronn, Germany, and A Vision for Painting, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France among others.
The artist's work is included in important public collections such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Berkeley Museum of Art, Berkeley, California among others, as well as foundations like the Museo Jumex, Mexico City, the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris and the Collezione La Gaia, Piedmont, Italy.
The work of Bas Jan Ader and Meg Cranston (collaboration with alumni John Baldessari) in the exhibition Centennial: 100 Years of Otis College Alumni opening September 7th and running through December 7, 2019 at the Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College, Santa Monica, CA.
Bas Jan Ader's work included in the three person show Disappearing - California c. 1970: Bas Jan Ader, Chris Burden and Jack Goldstein at the Modern Museum of Art, Fort Worth TX curated by Philipp Kaiser May 10 to August 11, 2019.
The work of Bas Jan Ader in the exhibition Nick Lodgers: I'd Prefer Not To curated by Lode Geens / NICC at the MuHKA Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp through September 15, 2019.
The work of Bas Jan Ader in Poéticas de Emoćion / Poetics of Emotion at CaixaForum, Zaragoza, Spain through October 27, 2019.
The work of Bas Jan Ader in Lithuania's Kuanas Biennial After Leaving | Before Arriving through September 28, 2019.
The work of Bas Jan Ader in Machismo curated by Jo Melvin and Vittoria Bonifati at the Villa Lontana in Rome in conjunction with the Fondazione Santarelli May 25 - July 20, 2019.
Bas Jan Ader's work featured in the exhibition Durch die Blume – Florale Metamorphosen at the Kunstverein Heilbronn, Heilbronn, Germany through July 26th, 2019.
The work of Bas Jan Ader featured in the exhibition A Vision for Painting at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris through August 26th, 2019.
Our Bas Jan Ader exhibition Water's Edge at Meliksetian | Briggs reviewed by Jan Tumlir in the October 2019 print issue of Artforum.
Looking back at Disappearing: California c.1970 featuring Bas Jan Ader by Katherine Keener in Art-Critique.
Exhibition of the work of Bas Jan Ader Water's Edge at Meliksetian | Briggs featured on Contemporary Art Daily.
Leah Ollman reviews our Bas Jan Ader exhibition Water's Edge at Meliksetian | Briggs in the Los Angeles Times.
Hunter Drohojowska-Philp's Art Talk on KCRW, podcast and article about Disappearing - California c. 1970: Bas Jan Ader, Chris Burden, Jack Goldstein at The Modern, Fort Worth through August 11, 2019.
Feature article on the work of Bas Jan Ader Eroe Moderno by Germano D'Acquisto in Studio Rivista magazine (in Italian).
Feature article on Disappearing - California c. 1970 at The Modern, Fort Worth featuring the work of Bas Jan Ader, as well as an interview with curator Philipp Kaiser in Paper City.
Allison McNearney speaks to Mary Sue Ader Andersen about Bas Jan Ader in the feature article Lost Masterpieces: The ‘Methodical Romance’ of Bas Jan Ader, the Artist Who Set Sail and Never Returned in The Daily Beast.
Review of the three person exhibition Disappearing - California c. 1970 featuring the work of Bas Jan Ader at The Modern, Fort Worth in the Dallas Morning News.
Brad Lecour's article about Disappearing - California c.1970, three person show featuring Bas Jan Ader at The Modern Fort Worth in the Dallas Observer.
Noah Charney's article Lost Artists: Why Some Creators Disappear featuring a discussion of Bas Jan Ader's work in The Art Newspaper.
