Press Release

Bas Jan Ader

Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery is pleased to present the first New York exhibition of Dutch conceptual artist Bas Jan Ader.

Bas Jan Ader was born in Holland in 1942. From 1965 to 1975, he lived and worked in Los Angeles. He produced an important yet little known body of work. Although gently humorous, an unremittingly tragic and romantic sensibility pervades the work.Economy and elegance also characterise the photographs, videos, films and performances. A leitmotif of the work is the journey undertaken towards self-discovery, the danger and the sadness therein. Falling, a metaphor for failure, is a recurring theme in his small but coherent body of work. Bas Jan Ader disappeared in 1975 during the realization of this project In Search of the Miraculous, a solo voyage in a 13 foot boat across the Atlantic Ocean.

This exhibition includes a selection of films, most notably the series of Falls. Primary Time, a video piece, employs the symbolism of flowers to disrupt what would otherwise be a classic, reductive, ‘process’ piece. Piet Niet, a watercolor work, refers to Ader’s reckoning with the purism of Piet Mondrian. This Oedipal struggle with tradition is further out in the photowork Pitfall on the way to a new Neo-Plasticism. In Search of the Miraculous (One night in Los Angeles) 1973-1975, is an 18 panel photo text piece depicting the artist wandering through the dark and empty streets of L.A., arriving finally at the ocean. The lyrics to ‘Searchin’, a 1957 pop song from the Coasters are handwritten in ink across the lower portion of the photos.

A selection of films will be presented on Thursday April 14 at 7:00 pm.

This exhibition is presented in cooperation with Patrick Painter Editions.