War service
During World War II, in 1941 Griffin was appointed as an official war artist to work with the 8th Australian Division in Malaya. During his three months' service in Malaya, until November 1941, he completed pictures which were prepared for transport to Australia; however, they did not leave the country and were lost through bombing. Following the fall of Singapore in February 1942, Griffin was captured by the Japanese and incarcerated for three and a half years as a prisoner of war in Changi Prison, in conditions slightly less harsh than many other Japanese camps. Whilst he was interned, his work was exhibited at the Hawthorn Library, in 1943, in a group show of ninety-one paintings and etchings with Arnold Shore, Max Meldrum, John Rowell, Jas. Quinn, John Farmer, Mary Hurry, Dora Serle, Margaret Pestell, Dora Wilson, Isabel Tweddle, Aileen Dent, Allan Jordan, Geo. Colville, and Victor Cog.
At the end of 1943, the first survivors of the Burma-Thailand railway returned to Changi and Griffin was shocked by their diseased and emaciated condition. His work changed from being optimistic records of camp life, to visual documents of atrocities and death.
During his imprisonment he made a series of drawings recording his experiences and he exhibited them on his return. The Australian War Memorial holds an extensive collection of this work, and in the 2007 exhibition Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture by Australian Official War Artists 1943-44 a note explained that his self-portrait was "the only work of Murray Griffin that can be shown." Released after the Japanese surrender in September 1945, Griffin accompanied an official party to determine the fate of other prisoners of war before being repatriated in October and employed in the Military History Section, Melbourne. His Changi images, exhibited at the NGV in October 1946 prior to a national tour, won praise for creating ‘great beauty out of scenes of death and horror’. Others found them overly gruesome, including the head of the section, J. L. Treloar, who had blocked their publication in July.
Describing his style, Griffin wrote:
"My drawings were done as simple recordings of facts. Here I believe that an artist can, by what he leaves out, point very directly and convincingly to an activity. His mind acts as a sieve, forbidding the irrelevant."
Post-war artistic career
From 1946 to 1953 he was a teacher of drawing at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School and then returned to RMIT was a senior lecturer in art from 1954 to 1968. During these periods, Griffin became known for his colour prints of birds and animals. He devoted spare time to his own art practice and exhibited at the Art Gallery of South Australia where he won the print section of the Maude Vizard-Wholohan Prize in 1957. Griffin spent most of his latter life living in the Eaglemont and Heidelberg areas of Melbourne, although he also travelled around country Victoria to paint and draw.
Griffin was influenced by Anthroposophy and the teachings of Rudolf Steiner.: 8–9 This passion resulted in a body of oil paintings and linocuts known as the Journey Series, held by the La Trobe University.
Following the death of his wife in 1980, Griffin died of pneumonia on 29 January 1992 at West Heidelberg and was buried in the Templestowe cemetery, survived by his two sons.
