Marion Mahony Griffin: The Form of Nature

 

Marion Mahony Griffin watercolor and ink on silk, circa 1919, depicts Eucalyptus urnigera and Tasmania scarlet bark at sunset.

The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University will present “Marion Mahony Griffin: Drawing the Form of Nature,” September 23 – December 4, 2005, devoted entirely to her graphic work.

Mahony Griffin was the second women to graduate from MIT with a degree in architecture and in 1898 became the first woman licensed to practice architecture in the U.S.

During her years of freelance work, most famously for Frank Lloyd Wright, she developed a Japanese style of drafting and design associated with Wright’s office. Mahony Griffin’s graphic art is defined by her innovative representations of nature and the show presents Mahony Griffin’s little-known series of drawings of Australian flora. She moved to Melbourne in 1914 with her husband, Burley Griffin, when he was appointed federal capital director of design and construction.

Drawings will include Burley Griffin’s pioneering designs for domestic landscape architecture that influenced the development of Mahony Griffin’s later drafting style, her own work as a landscape architect, and her independent work as a graphic artist.