The first exhibition devoted to Marion Mahony Griffin’s graphic work will be held at Northwestern University’s Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Evanston, Illinois, from 23 September to 4 December, 2005.

The first woman licensed to practice architecture in the United States, Mahony Griffin began her career in Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio, where she developed the striking Japanese-style presentation drawings associated with Wright’s office. In 1911 she married fellow architect Walter Burley Griffin, and together they embarked on a career that included the experimental Rock Crest, Rock Glen residential development in Mason City, Iowa, and of course the winning plan for Canberra, the Federal Capital of Australia.

Drawn primarily from the Block Museum’s collections, Drawing the Form of Nature will include a number of the Griffins’ presentation drawings created for prominent architectural commissions in the United States, examples of Mahony Griffin’s work as a landscape architect, and her little-known series of intricate botanical drawings and paintings of Australian landscapes.

Like her husband and collaborator, Mahony Griffin believed that buildings should reflect the character and culture of their natural surroundings. Her architectural presentation drawings are distinctive in their tall, narrow format, with a mixture of landscaped horticulture and natural growth linking the structure to its natural environment. By emphasizing natural materials and continuous horizontals, her drawings illustrated that architectural design and forms of the natural landscape are inseparable.

The image above is a detail from Walter Burley Griffin, architect (1879-1937), Marion Mahony Griffin, delineator (1871-1961), J.G. Melson Dwelling, Mason City, Iowa, 1912, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Gift of Marion Mahony Griffin.