Friday, April 3, 2009

Charles Rennie Mackintosh & Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh

Sticking to 20th century art, I've moving now to the Glasgow School. I've loved the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a Scottish architect, designer and watercolor artist, and his wife Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh since school: the flat color, geometry, curving lines. They were both involved in the Arts and Crafts movement and Art Nouveau. Tonight I discovered that CRM designed a House for an Art Lover! 

From rampantscotland.com:
Designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1901, House for an Art Lover was not built until 90 years later. The origin of the design was an ideas competition for the design of a large country house where the art was to consist of the house itself. The drawings were published afterwards and it was these that prompted Glasgow architects to propose creating the building in the city at Bellahouston Park in the 1980s.

The Mackintosh design for a large country house has been modified to create an international graduate study and conference centre for the Glasgow School of Art. There is also a high quality cafe and design shop and displays of Mackintosh drawings.

The exterior of the building is faced in harling, a traditional Scottish material. Of course, Mackintosh's unique embellishments are clearly visible both on the exterior and the interior of the building. Nobody else could design a building such as this. Based on meticulous research, his ideas for fireplace, furniture, lights and decorative panels have all been incorporated into this impressive, "modern" building. The illustration above is of the "music room" in the house - that's a piano on the far wall.


Here are some images of the house.









































































A few things by CRM
































































...and a few by MMM





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