In search of the miraculous

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Howard Hollands on a book that ‘brings out well the Sisyphean nature of Bas Jan Ader’s art-life exploration’

Bas Jan Ader: Death is Elsewhere by Alexander Dumbadze

What a long overdue publication this is about an artist with such a short yet creative life, who in many respects is the true heir to Marcel Duchamp, whom he greatly admired. This is the first critical commentary of the working life of Bas Jan Ader set in a helpful biographical context. This now features alongside the few gallery monographs and essays already available about this enigmatic artist.

One of the great qualities of the book is that it takes care not to overstate the understated nature of Ader’s work, and it ends as inconclusively as the unfinished projects themselves. The book brings out well the Sisyphean nature of Bas Jan Ader’s art-life exploration.

There is very little evidence left of his work, mostly on You Tube and in photographic archives. Dumbadze makes the most of it by providing a critical evaluation that takes extensive account of the contemporary context and the small group of artists working around Ader in Los Angeles. The relationship between his Dutch background and West Coast LA is significant, and it is this that set Ader apart from the contemporary US art scene. His existential engagement with the notion of falling (failing) is given a well-judged and appropriate space: ‘The artist’s body as gravity makes itself its master’ says Ader. There is something about his love of Los Angeles and its fault lines, with possible disaster around the corner, that was in tune with his own practice.

It becomes clear that Ader’s work does not fit any artistic category, including performance art. It is conceptual in its way, but it is the seamless condition between life and art that was new for the 1970s, though clearly an echo of Duchamp.

There is a fascinating account of how Ader developed his risk-taking by working in the US commodities market and this recalls Duchamp’s earlier development of Monte Carlo Bonds and how he used a system for always winning. Ader saw this engagement as an integral to his art practice.

The book also reveals a little about Ader’s teaching experience at University of California, Irvine. The pedagogical implications of his art practice is an area not explored here and perhaps is for another publication, but was clearly innovative.

The final section of the book appropriately deals with the ill-fated attempt in 1975 to cross the Atlantic in his tiny boat ‘Ocean Wave’ in the project titled ‘In Search of the Miraculous’. Ader was never found, though his boat was recovered at sea. This inevitably, led to endless speculation about his intentions and the nature of the project. The book deals with this extraordinary challenge in a balanced and informative way.

Bas Jan Ader’s life and work is well researched and is very clearly presented with the support of black and white images that match their original, deliberately uneven, quality. There is a very useful bibliography and set of end-notes.

This book will be valued by anyone with an interest in Bas Jan Ader or who wishes to understand more about his profoundly challenging art practice. A great read.

Bas Jan Ader: Death is Elsewhere  by Alexander Dumbadze is published by University of Chicago Press. 200pp., 44 mono illus, hbk. ISBN: 9780226038537