Editorials

James Elliott, the former director of the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive has died. He was 76. 

Elliott, a native of Medford, Ore., was the museum’s director from 1976 to 1987.  

As director, he established the Matrix program, which reserved space for modern or experimental art. 

Elliott is credited with making the museum one of the premiere contemporary art museums in the country. 

Before coming to the university, Elliott had served as director of the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Conn., and as chief curator of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 

He presided over several major traveling exhibitions, including shows featuring the work of Juan Gris, Richard Avedon and James Lee Byars. 

Elliott is survived by his son Jakob, his daughter Arabel Elliott, two sisters and Joan Ellis and Amy Barnum.