Bas Jan Ader: Death Is Elsewhere

Bas Jan Ader's art career lasted only five years. From 1970 to 1975 he played out his notions of the weight of gravity in short films that showed him hanging from trees (Broken Fall, Organic), biking into an Amsterdam canal (Fall 2, Amsterdam) or sitting in a chair atop a roof before propelling to the ground (Fall 1, Los Angeles). "Supremely self-confident," he met his wife while in graduate school "by lifting his shirt%E2%80%A6 and [stating] he possessed one of the five most beautiful belly buttons in the world." On July 9, 1975 Ader set out from Cape Cod in a 13-foot sailboat on a solo voyage to Europe. He was never seen again. Art historian Dumbadze paints a fascinating portrait of the young artist; his childhood during World War II in Amsterdam, his youthful days at Otis Art Institute, his quest for truth through philosophy, his love of Marcel Duchamp, and his participation in the Los Angeles art scene. Dumbadze sometimes speculates too broadly on the meaning behind Ader's work, but through letters, artwork and interviews by Ader's contemporaries he illuminates the brief life of a man content to let gravity take him where it would. 44 halftones. (May)