Bas Jan Ader

Bas Jan Ader (b. 1942 – disappeared 1975) was a Dutch artist who received his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Otis Art Institute of Los Angeles (1965) and his Master of Fine Arts at the Claremont Graduate School and University Center in Claremont, CA (1967). He was lost at sea in 1975 during the middle part of what was to be his grand trilogy of works, In search of the miraculous. Throughout his brief career Ader experimented with film, photography, installation and performance, often using himself as the main subject or actor. The artist’s work is included in important public collections, such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam and the Berkeley Museum of Art in Berkeley, CA.