Bas Jan Ader - Revival

Revival

Ader's revival began in the hands of artists, notable is Christopher Williams Bouquet for Bas Jan Ader and Christopher D'Arcangelo, 1991, with many later artists finding inspiration in the artist's romantic take on Conceptualism. With a limited body of work, primarily film and video, exhibitions of his work are difficult though two important retrospectives have occurred, one at the Sweeney Art Gallery in Riverside in 1999, curated by Brad Spence with catalogue contributions by Thomas Crow, Jan Tumlir, and Brad Spence, and another organized by Camden Arts Centre, London and the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Rotterdam, in cooperation with Kunsthalle Basel titled Bas Jan Ader – Please don’t leave me, accompanied by a catalogue published in English by Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, edited by Rein Wolfs, with texts by Erik Beenker and Jörg Heiser, amongst others.

The 2006 documentary film Here is Always Somewhere Else, followed up on Ader's recognition in the contemporary art world. As seen through the eyes of fellow Dutch emigrant filmmaker Rene Daalder, the film attempts to chronicle the life and work of Bas Jan Ader. Here is Always Somewhere Else, was released on DVD in November 2008 and features a collection of Bas Jan's film and video works.

Additionally, Erika Yeomans' conceptual documentary In Search of Bas Jan's Miraculous (1998, 40 mins., mixed media) on the life and art of Bas Jan continues to screen in various festivals and galleries, most recently as part of Dutch Kultprom Russian Tour of Bas Jan's videos. The project was also featured on This American Life in 1996. In 2009, 2nd Cannons Publications from Los Angeles released "Rarely Seen Bas Jan Ader Film," a flip-book of a supposed lost Ader film.