Bas Jan Ader Please Don't Leave Me Thirty years after artist Bas Jan Ader failed to return from a solo crossing of the Atlantic, the interest in his work continues to grow.

Bas Jan Ader Please Don't Leave Me Thirty years after artist Bas Jan Ader failed to return from a solo crossing of the Atlantic, the interest in his work continues to grow. In less than ten years he created some thirty-five works of art in which falling, physical and emotional vulnerability and mortality are the central themes. Published to coincide with a retrospective exhibition, this thoroughly illustrated catalogue provides a much needed overview of these and other aspects of Ader’s work. Also includes contributions by Tacita Dean, Jörg Heiser and Erik Beenker, amongst others. Published in Netherlands.

The work of Bas Jan Ader, while long considered influential in the art community, is now starting to gain an ever-increasing public interest. There have been a number of recent exhibitions of his work, including a European traveling retrospective in 2006-2007 with stops at the Camden Arts Centre, London, the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, and the Kunshalle Basel. A catalogue documenting all of Ader's artworks has been published on the occasion of the retrospective.

The 2006 documentary film Here is Always Somewhere Else has further increased Ader's recognition in the contemporary art world. As seen through the eyes of fellow Dutch emigrant filmmaker Rene Daalder, the film chronicles the life and work of Bas Jan Ader, and becomes a sweeping overview of contemporary art films as well as an epic saga of the transformative powers of the ocean. Here is Always Somewhere Else was released on DVD in November 2008 and features a collection of Bas Jan's film and video works.

Additionally, Erika Yeomans' conceptual documentary In Search of Bas Jan's Miraculous (1998, 40 mins., mixed media) on the life and art of Bas Jan continues to screen in various festivals and galleries, most recently as part of Dutch Kultprom Russian Tour of Bas Jan's videos. The project was also featured on This American Life in 1996.

Bas Jan Ader (born April 19, 1942 in Winschoten, the Netherlands, lost at sea in 1975 between Cape Cod, Massachusetts and Ireland) was a Dutch conceptual artist, performance artist, photographer and filmmaker. He lived in Los Angeles for the last 10 years of his life. Ader's work was in many instances presented as photographs and film of his performances. He also made performative installations, including Please Don't Leave Me (1969). His work began to experience a surge in popularity in the early 1990s.Ader was lost at sea while attempting a single-handed west-east crossing of the Atlantic in a 13ft pocket cruiser, a modified Guppy 13 named "Ocean Wave". The passage was part of an art performance titled "In Search of the Miraculous". Radio contact broke off three weeks into the voyage, and Ader was presumed lost at sea. The boat was found after 10 months, floating partially submerged 150 miles West-Southwest of the coast of Ireland. His body was never found. The boat, after being recovered by the Spanish fishing vessel that found it, was taken to Coruña. The boat was later stolen.