In dreams begin responsibilities: when Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader was lost at sea in 1975, he left behind a slim body of mostly photo-based work. Now posthumous editions of some of these pieces are raising provocative questions - Issues & Commentary - Critical Essay

Art in America, Feb, 2004 by Wade Saunders

In 1986, Andriesse published an article on Ader in Jong Holland, an art-history magazine. Two years later, Andriesse's monograph Bas Jan Ader: Kunstenaar/Artist (Amsterdam, Openbaar Kunstbezit, 1988) appeared concurrently with the 1988 Ader show organized by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam; it remains the crucial source concerning the oeuvre. In his book Andriesse included a 36-item list of Ader's works, representing both his own view, as an art historian, and the careful and time-consuming consensus reached by those involved with Ader's legacy. Andersen's input is evident in the list, where Andriesse cites her as "Ader's next of kin." Annotations to the inventory clarify the status of each item and its variants: about two dozen were considered to be completed works; the rest were printed matter, sketches or temporary installations for which no instructions were known. Andriesse's summary remains definitive: in the 15 years since the list was published, few new facts concerning Ader's work or working habits have come to light.

From 1977 to 1988, the estate remained with van Ravesteijn at Art & Project, where Ader had begun showing in 1972. In 1988, Andriesse--who had, besides studying art history and archiving Ader, worked in art galleries from 1977 on--began to represent the estate. (His Amsterdam gallery, founded in 1980 and bearing his name since '84, has been crucial to the Dutch art scene for two decades.)

Erik Ader and Andriesse wanted to keep the oeuvre together to the degree possible. Andriesse offered the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam a suite of seven of the editioned photographic works--Please Don't Leave Me (1969); All My Clothes (1970); I'm Too Sad to Tell You (1970); Pitfall on the Way to a New Neo-Plasticism, Westkapelle, Holland (1971); Broken Fall (Geometric), Westkapelle, Holland (1971); On the Road to a New Neo Plasticism, Westkapelle, Holland (4 parts), 1971; Untitled (Tea Party) (1972). Karel Schampers, then a curator at the Museum Boijmans, worked closely with Andriesse to bring the purchase about. Excepting On the Road to ..., Schampers chose vintage prints.

Andriesse knew Ader's oeuvre as well as anyone and had gained a sense of Ader's determined character and strong beliefs through his long association with the working group. Andriesse was against issuing posthumous pieces, as were the others on the team. They all felt that re-creating works or publishing posthumous editions that Ader had not undertaken himself, or specifically authorized in written instructions, violated what he had done and believed. (Thus they left In Search of the Miraculous as two unique pieces.) They had saved what Ader had finished. They refused to act in his stead by imagining what else he might have finished. But this meant that there was a strictly limited number of works to sell, so art dealers would be little interested in showing Ader's work, and the potential financial value of the estate was modest.

Andriesse represented the Bas Jan Ader estate for five years. On May 26, 1993, Andersen, the owner of the estate, sent Andriesse a letter telling him that she was withdrawing it from his care and entrusting it to Patrick Painter, who publishes artists' editions in Vancouver. In 1997, Painter opened Patrick Painter, Inc., an art gallery in Los Angeles. There he has exhibited Ader, as well as such other artists as Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy. In her letter to Andriesse, Andersen mentioned that Painter was interested in editioning posthumous works bearing Ader's name.