The ‘Methodical Romance’ of Bas Jan Ader, the Artist Who Set Sail and Never Returned
As Mary Sue Anderson Ader drove away from the Cape Cod coast on July 9, 1975, she began crying.
She had just returned from towing her husband, artist Bas Jan Ader, out to sea to begin what he estimated would be a three-month voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. It was to be the second piece in his three-part conceptual art project titled “In Search of the Miraculous,” and, if he succeeded, he would make history in the smallest sailboat ever to complete the journey.
Anderson Ader believed in her husband—he was a skilled sailor and confident in his quest—but she says she wasn’t unrealistic. She knew there was a possibility she wouldn’t see him again. Today, over 40 years after Ader was declared presumed dead, lost at sea, Anderson Ader still tears up when talking about her late husband and his last work of art.