Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was born in Glasgow, in 1868. Mackintosh was a Scottish architect. He was also a designer, artist and a water colourist. He was a designer both in the post impressionist movement and also in Art Nouveau United Kingdom.

Most of his life, Mackintosh spent it living in Glasgow during when the Industrial Revolution took place. This city was one of the most productive cities, attributed to engineering and shipbuilding. This resulted in a growth in the demand for arts and consumer goods.

However, the Industrial Reolution was not the only source of influence upon Mackintosh. Emerging modernist styles and Asian ideas made their impact upon his work to. Japanese art became more popular, and reproduced by Western artists and this made way for the new term Japonism. 

Mackintosh admired and was inspired by this style due to its restraint and economy of means, due to the use of texture and light and shadow effects instead of pattern and ornamentation, and due to its simple forms and natural materials. In the old western style, furniture was viewed as an ornament and it showed the richness and wealth of the person who owned it, and the value of the furniture was determined in accordance to how long it took to assemble it. On the contrary, Japanese furniture and design focused upon the quality of the space, and this was meant to provide an organic feeling to the interior space in which the furniture is displayed. 

At the same time however, another theory was forming throughout Europe and this engaged in a philosophy relating to functionalism and practicality; known as modernism. The main attribute to the Modernist Movement was to create innovative ideas and new technology. Mackintosh was named as a pioneer of this Movement, however his designs are far from the utilitarianism of this Movement. What he wanted was to consider people and their needs, and people according to him were not to be seen as masses but as individuals.  He mixed his Scottish inspiration together with Art Nouveau and Japanese forms’ simplicity.

The work of Mackintosh also made a significant contribution to British design in the twentieth century. The group ‘Glasgow Four’ was prosperous in creating a modern design style that is instantly recognizable and is today widely recognized as being way ahead of its time in Britain.

Mackintosh representative a period that produced many exceptional designers including them Frank Lloyd Wright and Josef Hoffmann with whom he was in close contact. The conventional architect created a body of work that although it derived from the continental Art Nouveau, displayed graphic differences. His bold furniture with its reduced lines, is still impressive today. His high-backed chair, with its extreme proportions, is predominantly famous. The Argyle chair exhibits the same stylistic features. This chair had floral motifs typical of Art Nouveau, but later works were influenced by geometry. This is illustrated in the Willow Chair resting on a box rather than on legs.

The most important architectural commission was for a new building for the Glasgow school of Art, for which Macintosh also designed the furniture and fittings.

Mackintosh was in belief that architecture was the supreme discipline since it is able to bring together all the arts, in fact in order to be able to understand his work one must view it as a complete unit instead of individual mechanisms.

His aim was to connect individuals with his work, both on a functional as well as on a spiritual level. And his answer be believed could be achieved through opposites, for instance through modernity and tradition, the masculine and the feminine, light and dark. His work has a character that sets it apart from the rest, which is found in a transition between the Victorian era and the Modern age. These individualist features are no more apparent than in his design for the House for an Art Lover.

Almost 30 years after his birth, situated near Parson Street, he helped in the design of Martyrs School. This building is amongst those that are attributed to this designer’s earliest works. This building features a Renaissance style, built with red sandstone. Furthermore Japanese influences may also be noted due to the use and form of timber attics. Mackintosh studied Japanese art and so these features are ascribed to him. Moreover, there is also an indication that he showed a development in the Art Nouveau style especially around the doorways.

John Keppie

Mackintoch had a close connection with the senior of his firm; John Keppie and it is known that Keppie was confident in giving Mackintosh the design work for important commissions.

It was John Keppie together with Charles Rennie Mackintosh who designed the Medical Hall at Queen Margaret Collage, University of Glasgow. This occurred approximately around the same time as the Martyrs School. The Medical Hall was formally opened on the 18^th November 1895.

Furthermore, in relation to domestic work attributed to Charles Rennie Mackintosh, one of his finest works is found in Helensburgh. His building was built as a new home for the publisher Walter Blackie. This Hill House was constructed between 1902 and 1904, and further work was completed by Mackintosh in 1912.




Western entrance of Hill House, Helensburgh

Stair tower at rear of Hill House, Helensburgh

His work in architecture, helped him to develop his own style which comprised in a combination between strong right angles and floral-inspired decorative motifs with delicate curves. This can be illustrated in Mackintosh Rose motif.

Similarly to his contemporary Frank Lloyd Wright, Mackintosh's architectural designs frequently included a widespread specification for the detailing, decoration, and furnishing of his buildings.

Unfortunately, Mackintosh’s architectural career was a relatively short one, but had a significant quality and impact. All his major commissions were made between 1896 and 1906, in which he designed private homes, commercial buildings, interior renovations and churches. Mackintosh's designs gained in popularity in the decades following his death.

His House for an Art Lover was built in Glasgow's Bellahouston Park in 1996, and the University of Glasgow, rebuilt the interior of a terraced house that Mackintosh had designed. The rediscovery of Mackintosh as a significant figure in design has been credited to the title of Glasgow as European City of Culture in 1990, and exhibitions of his.

Bibliography:

Wikipedia, 2014. Charles Rennie Mackintosh. [Online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Rennie_Mackintosh [Accessed at 10th January 2014]

Gerald Blaikie, 2002. Charles Rennie Mackintosh- Architect and Designer. [blog] Avaialble at: 

http://www.scotcities.com/mackintosh/ [Accessed at 11th January 2014]