Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Reason informed by emotion - expressed in beauty - elevated by earnestness - lightened by humour - that is the ideal that should guide all artists.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh, architect, designer and artist, is an even more enigmatic figure today than when he was alive. While the astonishing modernity of his work has long ensured him a place of prominence among the pioneers of the Modern Movement, in recent years his promotion of symbolic decoration has been hailed as prophetically post-modern.

Mackintosh believed architecture was the supreme discipline, as it uniquely brought all the arts together. To understand his work, it must be seen as a complete unit rather than as individual components. His aim was to connect individuals with his work both functionally and spiritually. He believed this could be achieved through a series of carefully balancing opposites: modernity with tradition, the masculine with the feminine, light with dark and the sensual with the chaste. His work has a distinctive character, as a figure head of his time, caught in the difficult 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.

If you would like further and more detailed information on Charles Rennie Mackintosh, his life and his works please visit the Glasgow Mackintosh website.

Mackintosh Attractions in and Around Glasgow

Glasgow is the best place in the world to view the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Detailed below are a few of the most popular local Mackintosh attractions.

  • Glasgow School of Art - Charles Rennie Mackintosh's greatest architectural achievement
  • Mackintosh at the Willow - The original Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed Tea Rooms
  • The Hill House - The finest of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's domestic creations, The Hill House dates from 1902 
  • The Hunterian - The Hunterian is home to one of Scotland’s finest collections 
  • Queen's Cross Church - Mackintosh Queen's Cross is one of Glasgow’s hidden architectural gems.
  • The Lighthouse - The Lighthouse is housed in the former Glasgow Herald building, the first public commission completed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh 
  • Scotland Street School - Designed between 1903 and 1906 as Mackintosh’s last major commission in Glasgow 

    

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