Glenn Murcutt AO (b. 1936), architect, received the world's highest architectural honour, the Pritzker Prize, in April 2002. As an architecture student at the University of New South Wales, he drew on principles he had learned while working for his father, a 'jack of many trades' who had a number of building businesses in Sydney after the Second World War. Murcutt is unusual among Pritzker winners in that he works alone, mostly on residential homes; he has never made a skyscraper or a tourist attraction and he uses mostly basic materials. His overriding design philosophy is that dwellings should 'touch the earth lightly'.
Murcutt designed Ken Done’s house in Middle Harbour (Mosman) in 1990. A couple of years later, Done painted his architect. Keen for the portrait to accord with the personal style of his khaki-clad sitter (he says wryly that the top of his friend's head reminds him of the curve of a typical Murcutt roof), the artist kept the work very simple. The details of the architect's face are reduced to lidless and browless eyes, nose and lips; the water is reflected in his signature half-spectacles. Floating in the blue sky over his head are the sun and moon, which sit beneath the architect's name like golden medals or seals.
Gift of the artist 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Ken Done
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