Art Nouveau for Tea in Glasgow
A reflection on the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a one of Scotland’s most innovative architects.
Glasgow's McLellan Galleries play host this month to a major retrospective of one of Scotland's most innovative sons, the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The eccentric designer left an indelible stamp on his native Glasgow: his creation, the Glasgow School of Arts, founded in 1896, still stands monumentally in this city of not-so-sober Scots.
Showing that imagination is not lacking in a hard- minded business town, Glaswegians this summer are celebrating the work of Mackintosh, who was born and educated there to become the city's principal architect from the turn-of- the-century. (Though in calling him 'Scotland's most famous and imaginative architect and designer' the official brochure is surely in excess. What about the great Robert Adam? Mackintosh himself probably would not have approved).
The designer is recognisably of his period, and the fact that he is still a very lively local influence is evidence enough of his greatness. This show should help to make his work better known beyond Scotland.
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