Artinfo has a brief interview with John Elderfield discussing his new role at Gagosian. One off-hand comment does serve as a reminder of the value and advantage to Gagosian that running these exhibitions offers.

Having a curator of Elderfield’s stature organizing shows will attract and flatter even the most confident collector. So when, Elderfield says this:

“I’m also going to be intrigued to see whether lenders feel differently about lending to different kinds of institutions.”

We can safely decode it as, it will be interesting to see whether collectors will want to lend to me for Gagosian’s show knowing full well that it increases the likelihood of receiving a call from Gagosian’s organization some day when they have a buyer for my work whether I’m interested in selling it or not.

The interview goes on to outline what other work Elderfield is engaged in at the moment:

Though Elderfield currently serves as a consultant to the online art search engine Art.sy and advises one very lucky couple on their art collection (he won’t say who), he doesn’t plan to take on too much additional work. “I want to get established at the gallery and get a sense of how many projects of real interest there are to do. And knowing Larry, there are going to be lots of them.”

“We Go To Concerts Together”: John Elderfield on His New Life Working With Larry Gagosian (Artinfo)