Charles Rennie Mackintosh was borne one of 11 children in the Townhead area of Glasgow. From these beginnings he has become one of the most celebrated architects of his generation.

He met Margaret Macdonald, his future wife, at Glasgow School of Art and much of his output reflects their artistic collaboration. Particularly noticeable is his masterful handling of light and space, his skilful use of colour, and his much celebrated treatment of the room as a complete "work of art". Many of his pieces of furniture have themselves become icons.

Mackintosh took his inspiration from our Scottish traditions and blended them with the flourish of Art Nouveau and the simplicity of Japanese forms. Much of his work survives.It can be seen today alongside that of of his close collaborators in the group known as the "The Four" and the other artists and designers who collectively created the "Glasgow Style".

For more information contact the Society

Here is a summary of a Glasgow based Mackintosh tour.

1. WEST END

Mackintosh House, University of Glasgow www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk

Interior of 6 Florentine Terrace, meticulously reassembled within the University's Art Gallery. Three rooms and related furniture. Florentine Terrace was a prestigious address and the home of Mackintosh and Macdonald from 1906-1914. The original building was demolished but the interior has been recreated a block away from the original.

2. CENTRAL GLASGOW

217 Sauchiehall Street. Here are the famous Willow Tea Rooms www.willowtearooms.co.uk
'Sauchiehall' means 'alley of the willows' and throughout the rooms Mackintosh used the Willow motif.

Catherine Cranston effectively invented the Glasgow tearoom phenomenon. She filled the need for a miniature social centre which served many social purposes including, uniquely, provision of ladies' rooms where respectable women could meet at a time when women without men in the urban scene was frowned upon.

For 21 years Mackintosh was Catherine Cranston's designer, from 1897. At Buchanan Street he designed murals around George Walton furniture. At Argyle Street it was his loose furniture and light fittings within Walton's interior scheme.

At Ingram Street he designed his first complete room, where from 1900, he remodelled interiors over 12 years.

Finally, in 1903-4 at Sauchiehall Street, he did the complete interiors and front facade of the building Miss Cranston bought in 1901.

At the McLellan Galleries www.glasgowmuseums.com can be found the Mackintosh Room.

At the Glasgow School of Art, 167 Renfrew Street www.gsa.ac.uk Mackintosh completely revised a new western end which was finished in 1909 when he was 41. This is his masterpiece; it has been hailed as the most important building worldwide in that decade. the north facade exactly reflects the internal plan of the building, resulting in a masterpiece of balanced asymmetry. The entrance is at the centre of the bulding.

3. SOUTH SIDE OF GLASGOW

Scotland Street School Museum www.glasgowmusuems.com. This is viewed from the exterior. This was Mackintosh's last public commission in Glasgow. Mackintosh reversed tradition and gave the towers with conical roofs walls of glass with narrow stone mullions. Instead of spiral stairs he used straight flights which benefited from the light which streams into them. Mackintosh played off the verticality of the towers against the horizontal nature of the rest of the building.

At Bellahouston Park is found the House for an Art Lover www.houseforanartlover.co.uk

For 90 years the plans for this building were unrealised. but in 1989 Graham Roxburgh,an engineer had the idea to build it. Rooms include thye Main Room, Dining Room, Oval Room, Music Room, and the Margaret Macdonald Room.

For a tour of the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh contact catswhiskerstours

posted by Nigel Cole @ 10:56 AM