Ascot Theater, Melbourne, Australia, Perspective

Walter Burley GriffinWW-1923-092351

1923·Ink on linen·58.6 × 79.2 cm (23 1/16 × 31 3/16 in.)

<p>As American expatriates in Australia, Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin transformed their Prairie School training in the studio of Frank Lloyd Wright into a highly imaginative, new local idiom. While building on their Chicago roots, the Griffins’ work in Australia took on elaborate geometries, reflecting a large range of influences from Gothic architecture to ancient Mayan temples. Nevertheless, it is also possible to understand their work as a contribution to the international Art Deco movement during this period. Like their realized Capital Theatre in Melbourne, Australia, the Griffins’ Ascot Theater project includes dramatic lines and crystalline molding surmounting the entrances. This drawing is one of many of the highly skilled architectural renderings by Marion Mahony Griffin given to the Art Institute after she returned to the United States following her husband’s death in 1937, enriching the museum’s strong holdings related to the Prairie School.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1923
Medium: Ink on linen
Dimensions: 58.6 × 79.2 cm (23 1/16 × 31 3/16 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Walter Burley Griffin

Artist

Walter Burley Griffin

Photography

Walter Burley Griffin was an American architect and urban planner who designed the master plan for Canberra, Australia's capital city, in 1912. Working in the Prairie School tradition pioneered by Frank Lloyd Wright, Griffin developed an organic architectural vocabulary that integrated landscape, geometry, and civic vision. His plan for Canberra, organized around water features and radiating avenues, remains one of the twentieth century's most ambitious urban designs. Griffin also designed residences and public buildings throughout Australia and the United States, emphasizing the integration of architecture with natural topography.

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