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Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) was and remains the most distinguished figure of what was known as the Glasgow School. An architect, decorator, graphic artist, painter and furniture designer, Mackintosh was known for combining the prosaic with the sumptuous, the severe with the romantic. This collection of essays examines his work in relation to the character of Glasgow and other artistic developments of the era. It also considers his contributions, and those of his wife and associates, to the cultural vibrancy of their city.Book Description
The Glaswegian architect, designer, and painter was a man ahead of his time. His work, as imaginative and original as other artists and architects of the Art Nouveau period, also extended in other directions and became an inspiration to aspiring artists. In his own time and environment, however, Mackintosh was largely ignored.Under Francis Newberry, the director of the Glasgow School of Art, a talented nucleus of artists was established whose work gained recognition throughout Europe. Mackintosh became a draftsman in the firm of Honeyman & Keppie, later becoming a partner and designing the modern Glasgow School of Art. He also designed several modern interiors andthe appropriate furniture for them.Mackintosh finally moved to France, where he dedicated himself to painting a remarkable series of original works that have become as highly prized as his furniture pieces and other designs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A great chronological history....
....of both the man and his work. His story is told form the beginning and includes all his major art forms and projects.
It demonstrates his stunning vision gloriously and tell us of the Glasgow School with great sympathy and does not overlook the important contribution of the other Glasgow four, including Mackintosh's wife and her sister. The fact that this a "Broad Sheet" style book adds to attraction, the pictures are stunning.
A great homage to a great man and a great movement.

Taschen excellence!
As usual Taschen gives good value! This was the first book I read about C. R. Mackintosh, which is indeed an amazing character, and one of the initiators of modernism. I ended up travelling to Glasgow to see some ofMackintosh fascinating interiors and buildings. Go there! The book iseasily read, with gorgious pictures, and a good introduction. By the sameauthors, I also recommand "20th century design", which I believeis going to be published in the States in a short while. ... Read more

Book Description
Together with the National Library of Ireland, Architectural Press presents seventy previously unpublished drawings by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

The identification in the National Library of Ireland of three sketchbooks, from which these drawings have been selected, represents a significant addition to the body of early drawings by Mackintosh. The sketches date from a crucial period in the young man's development, spanning his highly successful student years and the beginnings of his professional career. Each of the three sketchbooks covers an area central to his growth as an artist: the architecture of his native Scotland, an important scholarship journey in Italy and, Mackintosh's first love and greatest influence, the study of plants and growing things.

Essentially private, these little known and unique works provide privileged access to significant moments in the artist's intellectual and emotional life. In this book Elaine Grogan attempts to take them out of the library display-case and bring them to life in the hands of the reader. She invites us to look over Mackintosh's shoulder on his early tentative steps towards fulfilment as a creative genius. Connections are traced, both backwards in time to his training and forwards to his great successes and eventual bitter eclipse.

* Gain a new understanding of a crucial period in Charles Rennie Mackintosh's development through these unpublished sketches
* Connect his sketch books of Scotland, Italy and botany to later great works
* Be inspired by these private, yet significant sketches ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Mackintosh Beginnings
This is a great book for those interested the evolution of the architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. It shows a great assortment of sketches from early traveling years to his genesis explorations of the natural (arts and crafts) in the abstracted stylized botanical sketches toward the end of the book. The book also shows a glimpse into the eye of mackintosh, through hisvernacular studies of castles and towers.
The format is that of an art book, displaying the sketches with very little explaination, but this book would be a great resource to those who appreciate the life and work of Mackintosh. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Why are prices listed so expensive?
I just returned from Glasgow and this delightful book - brand new - is being sold for 10 pounds in all the gift shops, at the Mackintosh House and at the Glasgow School of Art. Why are used copies being sold for so much on Amazon?

Order this item and never received it - 3 issues
I ordered this book and received a tiny, 32 page, gift book instead.When I contacted the seller they asked that I return the gift book. 1) I returned the book, was reimbursed for the original order, but was never reminbursed for the postage to return the book.2) This seller continues to advertise a book they evidently do not have to sell. This is bait and switch. 3) In response to my Amazon A-Z Claim I receive a form email stating I have been reimbursed and my claim is closed.Amazon has just lost a very good customer.

Yin and Yang Mate in the Cold Hard North
Glasgow is as far North as Moscow. In the time of Charles Rennie Mackintosh it was a tough, smokey, industrial city still living in the shadow of centuries of Scottish Puritanism. Not exactly the most promisingenvironment you would think for an artistic movement that created the works of exquisite beauty presented in this book.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh, with a tight-knit group of fellow artists known as the Glasgow School, ensured that Glasgow at the turn of the century was an integral part of the international Art Nouveau movement, that was also flourishing in Paris and Vienna. The Art Nouveau movement is now seen as a major watershed in global culture because it was the first major art movement that drew inspiration equally from East and West.

As art evolved away from representative art, spiritual aspects came more into play. As with the Secessionist in Vienna, the German Expressionist, and the French Symbolists, mystical ideas became increasingly prominent, turning much of this art into a kind of ouija-board farce. The ghostly and heavily-symbolic works of the other members of the Glasgow School earned them the nickname of the "Spook School" and saw them marginalized.

But while much of the painting of the time reflects the faux spirituality of misunderstood oriental mysticism and sham seances, Mackintosh's work was distinguished by his deep, instinctive understanding of Oriental aesthetics, expressed unpretentiously in beautiful lines. This gave him the Midas touch at whatever he turned his hand to.

In his painting, posters, stained glass windows, furniture, andarchitecture, we can see the masterly interplay of straight and curved lines. Although John McKean's rather pedantic text in the book doesn't really emphasise this point enough, what we in fact experience in the stimulating tension between Mackintosh's straight and curved lines, is no less than a fusion of yin and yang, the 'female' and 'male' components of the Universe.

Fighting an uphill struggle in a city that didnÕt really understand his unique aesthetic, Mackintosh still managed to do an impressive amount of work as Colin Baxter's excellent pictures reveal. The greatest fulfillment of his art is in 3-D work, especially his furniture designs, which are notoriously difficult to photograph well, although here Baxter does a good job.

It was with furniture, especially in his many chair designs, that he most fulfilled his aesthetic. While most furniture designers of the period gave into the yin or the 'feminine,' with over-elaborate curves and rich decoration, creating a heavy effect, Mackintosh played these 'feminine' aspects off against the yang or 'masculine' by emphasizing simplicity and straightness, creating an uplifting tension that was not only beautiful in itself but also interacted with the curvature of the human form.

While much of Art Nouveau art and design is forever anchored in the historical period that created it, the work of Mackintosh continues to float with us into the future.

Insightful appraisal of Mackintosh's kaleidoscopic talents
In Charles Rinnie Macintosh: Architect, Artist, Icon, John McKean and Colin Baxter collaborate to showcase Charles Mackintosh's kaleidoscopic talents as an architect, painter, furniture designer, and graphic artist. They provide an insightful appraisal of Mackintosh's unique talents and offer an informative overview of both the man and his achievements within the context of his personal life and times -- and how his work is viewed today. Enhanced with often stunningly beautiful photographs, Charles Rinnie Macintosh is an outstanding contribution to personal and academic artbook reference and art history collections. ... Read more

Book Description
In 1896, Kate Cranston, the pioneer of Glasgow tea rooms in the late nineteenth century, commissioned Charles Rennie Mackintosh—who would become one of the Western worlds' most renowned designers—to design her tea rooms, and over the next two decades he did so with dazzling inventiveness. (Mackintosh's wife, Margaret, herself an artist, also made important contributions to the interior designs.) Cranston and Mackintosh opened up a unique, avant-garde artistic world to thousands of ordinary people and their tea rooms became internationally famous. Taking Tea with Mackintosh illustrates their exciting collaboration with black-and-white historical photographs of the tea rooms and color photographs of their surviving components. In addition, sixteen recipes for traditional tea room cakes, breads, and pastries are supplied, offering the best chance the reader will have to revisit these extraordinary places.

By Perilla Kinchin. 112 pages, over 40 color reproductions and black-and-white historical photographs, size: 8 1/2 x 7 1/2". Casebound book, with dust jacket. ... Read more

Book Description
Charles Rennie Mackintosh's (Scottish, 1868-1928) textile designs are not widely known—unlike his architecture, furniture, and watercolors. Fortunately, many of his original drawings for textile designs, made between 1915 and 1923, have survived and are presented in this book, an expanded and revised edition of Mackintosh: Textile Designs (John Murray, 1982). Roger Billcliffe is a noted expert on Scottish art and on Mackintosh in particular. His previous books include Mackintosh Watercolours (Taplinger, 1978); Charles Rennie Mackintosh: The Complete Furniture, Furniture Drawings and Interior Designs (Taplinger, 1979), and Mackintosh Furniture (1984).

112 pages, 90 full-color reproductions, size: 9 x 11 1/2". Casebound book with dust jacket. ... Read more

Book Description
In 1923, architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife, Margaret Macdonald, went on holiday to Roussillon, in the South of France. The holiday became a permanent stay, and Mackintosh began to paint. This work details how the Pyrnes Orientales inspired Mackintosh's paintings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Monsieur Macintosh
For all lovers of Charles Rennie Macintosh, this is a bilingual book about his stay in France withexamples of his paintings. Beautifully produced. ... Read more

Book Description
Mackintosh's only known writings on architecture comprise six lecture scripts and a diary, reproduced in full. They illuminate the roots of his genius in unexpected ways and give insight into both his respect for tradition and his passionate commitment to creative independence. Essays by established experts in the field introduce the texts, and illustrations include many previously unpublished or inaccessible Mackintosh drawings. ... Read more