|
 Charles
Rennie Mackintosh
Above: The front entrance of
the Glasgow School of Art designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
© Glasgow School of
Art Enterprises Ltd.
Charles
Rennie Mackintosh was one of the most influential designers of
the 20th century. Multi-talented, he designed buildings, furniture,
textiles, interiors and painted unusual and dramatic watercolours.
In spite of being probably the most gifted designer of his generation,
he died in obscurity and poverty.
He was born on 7th June 1868 in
Glasgow where he trained as an architect. He also attended evening
classes at the prestigious
Glasgow School of Art. At that time the School was leading
a revival in the arts and was the centre of the group of artists
known as as the 'Glasgow Boys'. There Mackintosh and his friend,
Herbert MacNair, met their future wives, the sisters Margaret
and Frances MacDonald. All four artists, known as 'the Four',
worked together on innovative designs. Their strange abstract
human figures were influenced by Aubrey Beardsley and were so
weird that the style was called the 'Spook School'. Unfortunately,
they were met with suspicion, particularly in England, and Mackintosh
never overcame this during his lifetime.
The Glasgow School of Art was also
important to Mackintosh because he became a friend of its influential
director, Francis Newberry, who was instrumental in getting Mackintosh
one of his most important architectural commissions: the new Glasgow
School of Art.
Mackintosh designed most of his
Glasgow buildings and interiors between 1896 and 1910. These included
the Glasgow School of Art, private houses, Windyhill and Hill
House, for two businessmen, and interiors for tearooms owned by
a Miss Kate Cranston. His work was largely ignored in Scotland
and England but in Europe it was truly appreciated. The Four were
invited to take part in the 8th Exhibition of the Vienna Secession
in 1900 and then, in 1902, they took part in the International
Exhibition of Modern Decorative Art in the Pavilion of Turin where
their work met with great acclaim, and their modern geometric
designs, were seen as trail-blazing work when contrasted with
the flowing lines on Art Nouveau. Mackintosh is quoted as saying
that he did not like Art Nouveau and he fought it with straight
lines.
By 1914 Mackintosh had lost any
hope of practicing as a designer or architect in Glasgow. He and
Margaret moved to Walberswick on the Suffolk coast where he painted
in watercolour, particularly concentrating on studies of flowers.
A year later they moved to London and Mackintosh tried to resume
his architectural practice, but without much success although
he designed the interiors for a house in Northampton and striking
textiles for the Dug-Out Tea Room in Glasgow. In 1923 Mackintosh
gave up the struggle and he and Margaret moved to the South of
France where he painted landscapes. He finally died of cancer
on 10th December 1928 in London.
More
Information on Mackintosh
Copyright © 2001 by Carol
Fisher
Return
to Home Page
|
