John Elderfield

John Elderfield (born 25 April 1943) was the Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, from 2003 to 2008.

Elderfield studied the history of art at the University of Manchester and the University of Leeds. He received his PhD from the University of London in 1975.

In 1974, Elderfield edited and introduced the diary of the Zurich Dada artist Hugo Ball, Hugo Ball: the flight out of time. This publications was revised in 1996.

Elderfield joined the Museum of Modern Art, New York, as Curator of Painting and Sculpture in 1975. He served the Museum as Chief Curator at Large from 1993 to 2003.

Elderfield had published studies of Henri Matisse, Kurt Schwitters, Richard Diebenkorn, Howard Hodgkin, and Pierre-Paul Prud'hon. In 1986, Elderfield received the Eric Mitchell Prize for his book on Schwitters. Elderfield received the award of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French Government.

In 2005, Time Magazine included Elderfield on their list of the 100 most influential people of 2005.

Elderfield contributed a catalog essay to the exhibition of Bob Dylan's paintings at the National Gallery of Denmark from September 2010 until April 2011

Bibliography

• Flight out of Time: a Dada Diary (University of California Press, 1974; revised 1996) ISBN 978-0520204409
• Kurt Schwitters (New edition 1987), Thames & Hudson, ISBN 978-0500274743
• Modern Painting And Sculpture: 1880 to Present at the Museum of Modern Art ISBN 0-87070-576-8
• Henri Matisse: A retrospective ISBN 0-87070-432-X
• Helen Frankenthaler ISBN 0-8109-0916-2
• Language of the Body: drawings by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon ISBN 0-8109-3585-6