John Elderfield – författare

A major reassessment of a critical moment in the work of one of the 20th century’s most important artistsThe works that Henri Matisse (1869–1954) executed between late 1913 and 1917 are among his most demanding, experimental, and enigmatic. Often sharply composed, heavily reworked, and dominated by the colors black and gray, these compositions are rigorously abstracted and purged of nearly all descriptive detail. Although they have typically been treated as unrelated to one another, as aberrations within the artist’s oeuvre, or as singular responses to Cubism or World War I, Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913–1917 reveals the deep connections among them and their critical role in an ambitious, cohesive project that took the act of creation itself as its main focus.This book represents the first sustained examination of Matisse’s output from this important period, revealing fascinating information about his working method, experimental techniques, and compositional choices uncovered through extensive new historical, technical, and scientific research. The lavishly illustrated volume is published to accompany a major exhibition consisting of approximately 125 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints. It features in-depth studies of individual works such as Bathers by a River and The Moroccans, which Matisse himself counted as among the most pivotal of his career, and facilitates a greater understanding of the artist’s innovative process and radical stylistic evolution.Distributed for the Art Institute of ChicagoExhibition Schedule:Art Institute of Chicago (March 20 – June 6, 2010)Museum of Modern Art, New York (July 18 – October 11, 2010)

A celebration of the stunning collection of artworks donated in honor of the creation of The Menil Drawing InstituteFeaturing outstanding 20th-century drawings promised or bequeathed to the Menil Collection for the opening of the Menil Drawing Institute, this elegant volume is a testament to the growing significance of drawings as stand-alone artworks over the past century. The drawings come from the private collections of well-known connoisseurs Janie C. Lee, Louisa Stude Sarofim, and David Whitney, and include works by artists such as Bruce Nauman, Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Eva Hesse, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Jackson Pollock. Its chief curator Edouard Kopp profiles the Drawing Institute’s nature and scope, and noted scholars John Elderfield and Richard Shiff discuss historical aspects of drawing, while Terry Winters muses from an artist’s viewpoint.Distributed for the Menil Collection

Hugo Ball--poet, philosopher, novelist, cabaret performer, journalist, mystic--was a man extremely sensitive to the currents of his time and carried in their wake. In February 1916 he founded the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. The sound poems and performance art by Ball and the other artists who gathered there were the beginnings of Dada. Ball's extraordinary diaries, one of the most significant products of the Dada movement, are here available in English in paperback for the first time, along with the original Dada manifesto and John Elderfield's critical introduction, revised and updated for the paperback edition, and a supplementary bibliography of Dada texts that have appeared since the 1974 hardcover edition of this book.

A fascinating examination of a formative time in the iconic artist’s careerIn 1948, Willem de Kooning held his first solo exhibition, at age forty-four, at the Charles Egan Gallery in New York City. Willem de Kooning: The Breakthrough Years explores how the painter developed his distinctive style in the period leading up to the show, blending figuration with abstraction and experimenting with materials such as enamel paint, cardboard, and Masonite.This beautifully illustrated book features illuminating essays by John Elderfield and Mitra Abbaspour, who closely consider de Kooning’s work during this time, the environment and influences that surrounded him, and the impact of the 1948 exhibition on both his career and the New York School. Lee Colón’s detailed chronology provides invaluable context for the exhibition while Jim Coddington and Bart Devolder’s material study of Black Friday—a painting included in the 1948 exhibition—offers vital perspective on the painter’s working methods.Featuring paintings and drawings made by the artist between 1945 and 1950 as well as important primary source material, this book sheds critical light on a prolific and formative period in the life and career of an incomparable artist.Exhibition SchedulePrinceton University Art Museum, PrincetonMarch 14–July 26, 2026Distributed for the Princeton University Art Museum

Helen Frankenthaler (1928 2011) has long been recognized as one of the great American artists of the twentieth century. A member of the second generation of American postwar abstract painters, she is widely credited with expanding the possibilities of abstraction through her invention of the soak-stain technique, and her highly personal references to figuration and landscape. This monograph is a revised and expanded edition of John Elderfield s landmark monograph (Frankenthaler, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1989) for the twenty-first century. It includes updated text throughout, along with a new chapter that covers work made post-1988. There are over 300 full-color reproductions of artworks by Frankenthaler, along with nearly 100 comparative illustrations and documentary photographs. As with the original book, this promises to be the definitive volume on Frankenthaler s career, written by the leading expert on her oeuvre.