Bas Jan Ader Exhibition at Metro Pictures

Metro Pictures opens a survey show of photographs, films, and installation works by the renowned Dutch / Los Angeles artist Bas Jan Ader on Wednesday, June 22nd, with an opening reception on Tuesday evening June 21st.  Included are complete sets of the original test photographs Ader made for his book “Fall I and II,” along with the working photographs for several other important works of the early 1970s that have not been previously exhibited.

Ader’s well-documented story is so compelling that his poignant art is fused into the narrative of his history. In 1963 Ader moved from Amsterdam to Los Angeles where he was associated with a group of artists whose work would define an important strain of conceptual art distinct to the West Coast. There he produced a small but extraordinarily affecting body of artworks prior to 1975, when he disappeared at sea while sailing the Atlantic alone as the second part of his trilogy “In Search of the Miraculous.”  The first part, included in the exhibition, comprises 18 black-and-white photographs of the artist walking through Los Angeles at night. The third part was to be an exhibition at the Groeningen Museum after arriving in Europe.

Bas Jan Ader’s art had the same effect, beauty and pathos when it was exhibited more than 40 years ago, without knowing his family history or the dramatic and mysterious circumstances surrounding his disappearance.