Ward W. Willits house, Highland Park, Illinois, 1902. Watercolor and ink rendering by Marion Mahony Griffin. Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation/Frank Lloyd Wright Trust
The text below is excerpted from an extensive profile published in Curbed. Read original article here.
Marion Mahony Griffin would probably spit on Frank Lloyd Wright’s 150th birthday cake if she had the chance. So let’s get that out of the way. After a fruitful partnering in young adulthood, they parted with bitterness, a bitterness that did not mellow in old age for either of them.
Despite any inclination to do so, it’s difficult to separate the architect and artist from either of her work husbands: Mahony Griffin’s metaphorical one (Wright) and her literal one (Walter Burley Griffin). In fact, attempting to do so creates a Marion Mahony Griffin that didn’t exist. While Mahony (most typically pronounced “May-oh-nee” by American scholars) Griffin nursed a grudge against Wright for a large part of her life, their contributions to the Prairie School are intertwined—they each helped make the other’s career. Meanwhile, Mahony Griffin was such a fierce cheerleader of her husband, the Prairie architect Walter Burley Griffin, that she happily painted herself in his background.
So I won’t try to focus solely on Marion Mahony Griffin. Some women work solo and some work in teams, and Marion was a team player. It’s hard to consider her life and work without the proper context of her two most famous collaborators. Instead, I picture her at center stage with Wright and Griffin as her floppy-tied supporting actors.
Read the full article here.
Unity Temple, 1905, Oak Park, Illinois. Watercolor and ink rendering by Marion Mahony Griffin.