Philip Clarkson Elliott (1903-1985)

Philip C. Elliott studied at the University of Minnesota and received a B.F.A. from Yale University Art School in 1926. He lived and worked in New York, Paris, and Pittsburgh before moving to Buffalo in 1941 with his wife, artist Virginia Cuthbert, to become director of the School of Fine Arts at the Albright Art Gallery. He also held a teaching position that accommodated teaching classes at the State University College across the street. He remained director through two transitional periods of growth. In 1954 the school was renamed the Albright Art School when the University of Buffalo assumed oversight and in 1956 the university converted from being a private institution to becoming part of the State University of New York system. Elliott served as chair of the Department of Art until 1969 and remained on the faculty for several years. The eclectic artist was both a painter and photographer.