Trained as an art historian, Philip Larson turned to art-making when he was 29. A passionate devotee of Prairie School architecture, his work frequently displays a geometrical patterning reminiscent of the architectural ornamentation that adorns buildings of Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and their followers. Larson's respect for the architectural history of the Midwest is evident in his etched-glass decorations for bus shelters along Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis.

In the cast-iron elements for his floor-bound Three Anasazi (1989) and his Garden bench, The Six Crystals (1988), Larson explores progressive permutations of combinations of basic geometric forms. The cast-iron components in The Six Crystals represent the six possible combinations of four irregular diamond shapes derived from the shapes of rock crystals. The trio of cast-iron parts that make up Three Anasazi are variations on a basic triangle-and-diamond motif. Through its title and its evocation of eroded masonry, the piece pays homage to the Anasazi, a pueblo-building culture in the Southwest that flourished from the 11th through the 14th centuries.
 
 

The Six Crystals 1988
granite, cast iron

Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Gift of the T. B. Walker Foundation, 1958