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Paper Abstract: Discusses the work of the Scottish architect and designer. Influence on his work of the Arts and Craft Movement and Japanese design. Aspects of the Glasgow design style. Use of materials. Analysis of three chairs designed by MacKintosh; their style, simplicity, materials used. His famous high-backed chair and its design innovations. Paper Introduction: Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) was a Glasgow-born architect and designer of furniture and interiors whose work was carried out primarily in that city and its environs. Mackintosh, who collaborated in much of his design work with his wife, designer Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh (1865-1933), attended the Glasgow School of Art. He joined the architectural firm of Honeyman and Keppie in 1889 and in 1896 he won the competition to design the new building for the Art School (1897-1909). The school was his most important commission but others included William Davidson's home, Windyhill (1901), at Kilmalcolm and Catherine Cranston's Hill House (1903-4) at Helensburgh. Mackintosh also took on a fair number of design commissions for furniture and interiors and Cranston was his most important client. All three of the chairs discussed in this essay were Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. An example of a ladderback chair (c. With its unadulterated materials, simple lines, rustic cane seat, andlack of extrinsic decoration the Gimson chair meets the Arts and Craftscriteria for being derived from earlier models, for respecting materials,for simplicity of design, and for practicality. London: St. The Arts and Crafts movement also favored usefulness in the objectsdesigned and Mackintosh, too, never designed furniture that was noteminently practical in terms of its intended use. But they were independent of this movement only tothe extent that they had gone beyond it in many respects. San Francisco: Chronicle, 1989. He joined thearchitectural firm of Honeyman and Keppie in 1889 and in 1896 he won thecompetition to design the new building for the Art School (1897-19 9). This chair is not at all pretentious in design and certainlynot in construction where "the joinery is deliberately left visible and thedecoration is reduced to a minimum" (Adams 67). Works CitedAdams, Steven. It also was a signof Mackintosh's willingness to continue to explore fresh design options. "The Four," as they came to becalled, formed the core of the emerging Glasgow design style. This chair refers to earlier styles--including that of the Gimsonpiece. The towering backs are balanced by the heavyelements that connect the back legs and are, therefore, somewhat hiddenfrom view when looked at from the front. The design has not even the slight trace of naturalism--none of the curving lines that were found in the bird-and-tree design ofthe oval rail chair of 1897. Although there aremarked similarities between Mackintosh's early design work and that of theemerging Art Nouveau style, the former was well underway prior to theemergence of the latter. In some respects most ofthese criteria are met by chairs that Mackintosh designed for CatherineCranston's establishments--but they also represent significant departuresfrom anything designed in the earlier movement. Introduction. Although sketches for a similar chair (ill. As students at the Art School Mackintosh and MacDonald had workedclosely with Margaret's sister Frances (1873-1921) and Charles' friendHerbert MacNair (who also wed in 1899). Once againMackintosh employs a tree design; in this case it is a willow, which wasappropriate to its setting and made "a subliminal statement that was echoedby the more literal references in plaster and stenciled panels on thewalls" (Bill 5 1). The chair calls noprecedents to mind and its design is impressive in creating a sense ofsolidity despite its open work and relative thinness. This was a common motifemployed in other, more readily recognizable forms, by Mackintosh aroundthis time; but it also presented a form that is unrelated to birdiconography in earlier art. This tendency earned them the nickname of "TheSpook School," a name that left them unperturbed for, as Margaret said inan interview in The Studio magazine, "conventional distortions [such ascaryatids] are accepted, why should not the worker today make patterns outof people?" (quoted in Jones 21). 2nd ed. Theschool was his most important commission but others included WilliamDavidson's home, Windyhill (19 1), at Kilmalcolm and Catherine Cranston'sHill House (19 3-4) at Helensburgh. All three of the chairs discussed in this essay weredesigned for her chain of Tea Rooms in Glasgow between 1897 and 1917.These chairs show traces of the primary influences on Mackintosh's designs:the Arts and Crafts movement and Japanese design. It is quite large, measuring 93.7 x 58.5x 52.2 cm, but Mackintosh also designed a smaller version that was used inthe room as well. The Arts and Crafts Movement. Thethird example is a ladderback chair (Trowles ill. This willingness continued even when he was all but retired. The Glasgow school of designhad not, of course, been "an isolated phenomenon [but] was, rather, a localsymptom of a widespread revolt against convention in all the arts" (Howarth223). In this very elegant chair Mackintoshcombined elements from his design past (the height and the geometrictendency) with memories of the plain shapes and unadorned qualities thatwere valued by some aspects of the Arts and Crafts movement. Charles Rennie Mackintosh. They wereinvited, as a group, to send "modern" work to the important Arts and CraftsSociety Exhibition in London in 1896 where their pieces "evoked a storm ofprotest from public an critics alike" (Howarth 38). The progressivelymodernizing trend in Mackintosh's work demonstrates that he was a part ofthe widespread revolution in European design. The perceptive editor of The Studio, Gleeson White, was one of thefew who was intrigued by the work of The Four in London. London: St. Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Modern Movement. Mackintosh Architecture: The Complete Buildings and Selected Projects. 154), also from theWillow Tea Rooms, that dates, however, from 1917 and represents one ofMackintosh's last realized furniture designs, done while he was in semi-retirement in London. "The Mackintosh Inheritance." Mackintosh's Masterwork: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow School of Art. Theflow of the grain's lines through the simple, flat rungs of the chair'sback is more than enough decoration and the humped shape of these panelsseems deliberately designed to maximize the area in which this 'decoration'can be displayed. "Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Furniture." Antiques 15 .4 (1996): 494-5 5.Cooper, Jackie (ed.). From the back, however, the broadsupports are simply of a part with the enclosing effect of the rail backs.These chairs proved to be a happy inspiration for Mackintosh who went on todesign several more which he frequently used "as visual punctuation inrooms from which he had expunged traditional architectural elements such aspilasters and paneling" (Billcliffe 497). Theirprincipal influence at this stage was the 'decadent' drawing style ofAubrey Beardsley (which they called "The Squirm Style") that became popularin the 189 s (Jones 21). The style is somewhat more"aggressively rustic" than other trends commonly identified with themovement (such as Morris' own elegant flowered wallpapers and tapestries)(Adams 67). And with its straight, tall back the chairis reminiscent of Shaker furniture, which was an important influence on themovement. Except for the curve of the back everythingis at right angles in the tree design, as the intersecting vertical andhorizontal elements combine to represent the tree. The chair is made of ashand the lightly stained pieces make the most of the grain of the wood. He completed very little work after thispoint and by the time he died he was "already forgotten in mainstreamarchitectural circles," and, although modernists of the 192 s and 193 shailed him as a precursor, they failed to "grasp the elements of complexityand decoration in his work" (Crawford 885). It is the 19 4 curved lattice-back chair for the WillowTea Rooms (Trowles ill. 1895) by the Arts andCrafts designer Ernest Gimson shows how these principles were put intopractice (ill. London: Routledge, 1977.Jones, Anthony. London: Wellfleet, 199 .Trowles, Peter. in Adams 69). Indeed, theGlasgow designers were decidedly ahistorical in the matter of sources.Just as Mackintosh had this "tendency to abandon the example of history asa source of inspiration in building" his furniture and other works werealso "very simple in design and only decorated with organic and geometricmotifs devoid of any historical associations" (Adams 1 6). The high backs were also practical insofar as they protected the "highhairstyles and hats" of the patrons (Bernard 11). The chair clearly reflects the change in Mackintosh's style thatresulted from his exposure to the increasingly geometric, modernizing trendof the Vienna Secession. This chair was designed for a discrete part of theWillow Tea Rooms, called the Dug-out, for which Mackintosh planned a colorscheme of black and primary colors. They held in commonthe notion that every aspect of the human-built environment could be athing of beauty. Art Nouveau, the Vienna Secession, and numerous other stylisticinitiatives took paths that were sometimes very similar, and all of themowed at least some debt to the Arts and Crafts movement. Mackintosh also took on a fair numberof design commissions for furniture and interiors and Cranston was his mostimportant client. Around 1912 the commissions failed to come as readily as they oncehad and Mackintosh, grievously overworked and drinking heavily, quit hispractice and moved to London. Mackintosh'sinteriors were "the antithesis" of this style and, as one writer notes, thewords of William Morris apply perfectly to his interior design: "simplicityof life, even the barest, is not misery, but the very foundation ofrefinement" (quoted in Jones 128). The iconographyof the rail backs is not known with certainty, but Billcliffe convincinglysuggests that they represent abstract birds in treetops with "the light andspringy back stiles acting as trunks" (497). He and Margaret had been invited to design a roomfor the 19 Secession exhibition and while their work made a significantimpact on the Austrian designers, the influence was mutual. He met them andwas impressed by their great versatility and the freshness of their ideas.Soon afterward he published two articles on the Glasgow designers and "atone stroke disclosed the presence of a flourishing and well-integratedschool of design with its own distinctive characteristics" and one thatseemed to be "completely independent of the English Arts and Craftsmovement" (Howarth 39). Accordingly Mackintosh raised thechair backs (6-8 per table) to the height of the screens and, thereby,"lifted the plan of the room above the heads of the diners, who wereenclosed within a palisade of oval back rails and styles" (Billcliffe 497). These aisles were subdivided, with screens, into baysand the central space was quite narrow. One aspect of design that was, however, shared by Mackintosh and theArts and Crafts workers was their interest in bringing out the best intheir materials. 159-78. As Bernard says, Mackintosh believed in "the use ofmaterials according to their nature [and] there is no evidence of scoringin plaster, veneering in wood, or unnecessary refinements in any sense"(11). 148) that "would become one of the most famous of all chairdesigns of the last century" (Billcliffe 497). The second chair also served an 'architectural' function in itsallotted space. It stood at a dividing point between the frontand back salons of Cranston's establishment and was use by the hostess orcashier. 152) that is "perhaps Mackintosh's most impressiveand original furniture design" (Trowles 17 ). Yet he had very littlesubstantive, direct influence on the future. "Charles Rennie Mackintosh: The Architect as Artist." Antiques 149.6 (1996): 878-887.Howarth, Thomas. Rev. ed. They were stronglycriticized for their "strange linear patterns" and for the highly stylizedhuman figures in their graphic and decorative work (Howarth 38). As Crawford sums it up, hiswork was "a brief but brilliant episode in architecture and the decorativearts that turned away from the past more decisively than it reached intothe future" (885). Despite the factthat the English Arts and Crafts designers "stolidly maintained [their]attitude of scornful derision" (never again asking the Scots designers toshow with them) the general stylistic approach of the movement was thebasis of the Glasgow work and its traces remained apparent throughout thefirst decade of the twentieth century. Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) was a Glasgow-born architectand designer of furniture and interiors whose work was carried outprimarily in that city and its environs. The first is Mackintosh'sbest-known chair, the 1897 high-backed chair with an oval back rail(Trowles ill. This chair's design was unique in several respects. But they did not adopt the movement's conviction thatachieving these ends meant a return to the medieval past. Mackintosh, who collaborated inmuch of his design work with his wife, designer Margaret MacDonaldMackintosh (1865-1933), attended the Glasgow School of Art. This tall chair (136.8 x5 .5 x 46.2 cm) was the first of many such chairs designed by Mackintosh.The idea for the memorably odd dimensions of chairs "whose seats werestrangely near the floor and whose backs aspired perpetually to theceiling," arose from necessity (John Summerson, quoted in Crawford 883).The luncheon room at the Argyle Street establishment was nearly one hundredfeet long and framed by thick columns that created long aisles along eitherside of the room. 8-14.Billcliffe, Roger. Martin's, 1989.Crawford, Alan. But all the rustic qualities of that work are eliminated here andthe slight effect of chinoiserie (increased by the use of the ebonized woodthat was so common in that style) in the design plays with the rectangularopen work that characterized that pseudo-Chinese mode. Rev. ed. Butin many respects it may have represented a further step for some of itsprinciples. The chair, which is madeof oak, measures 118.7 x 94 x 42.2 cm and was designed to be seen,initially, from the back. The Glasgow designers did not, for example, concern themselves withthe social aims of the movement--to overcome the debilitating effects ofthe Industrial Revolution on the working class and educate them in beauty.But they did adopt the Arts and Crafts concept of "a well-designedenvironment--fashioned with beautiful and well-crafted buildings,furniture, tapestries and ceramics" that was promoted by William Morris,and others, from the movement's beginnings (Adams 9). In the case of the designers of the ViennaSecession, however, Mackintosh and his fellow Glasgow designers were muchadmired in Austria and there was a strong degree of mutual influence. The final trait thatMackintosh and the movement held in common was the desire to rid interiorsof the overstuffed, cluttered mode of the late Victorian era. Mackintosh Architecture: The Complete Buildings and Selected Projects. Mackintosh's design work certainly rejected some of the Arts andCrafts notions--especially the concentration on the contented de-industrialized worker surrounded by beauty and the historical models. It is a simple chair with five hump-shaped,flat rungs on the ladder back, curving flat armrests, a caned seat andpairs of crosspieces connecting the legs. Here the rungs ofthe laddered back are 'waved' and there is an implicit tension between theplain uprights of the back and the fact that the ascending rungs increasesubtly in size. The ladderback chair is made ofebonized wood and the gleaming black stain brings out the subtle traces ofthe wood texture on the surfaces. Unlike the other examplesthis enormous chair was a one-of-a-kind design. Cooper, Jackie (ed.). The verticality of the tall chair is countered by thehorizontal rungs, but they, in turn, seem to radiate upward--as if about topass beyond the top of the chair--because of the size differences and thevisually pleasing wave shape. in Adams 69)show the legs and struts as carefully turned in a series of billows andknobs, the actual chair has very plain legs and struts which feature onlyslight tapering at their ends. London: Quintet-Chartwell, 1987.Bernard, Barbara. Martin's, 1989. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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