Art Nouveau: the work of Charles Rennie MacKintosh

Art Nouveau was a style “in total,” meaning its aesthetic was found not only in architecture, but also in the visual and applied arts, in décor, furniture, fashion, jewelry and advertisement. The style is also known as having been adapted in its articulation depending on where it emerged. Regardless, this artistic form had distinct characteristics. Certainly, like the Aesthetic movement, it rejected Victorian Era historicism and its eclecticism. Furthermore, Art Nouveau utilized modern materials (iron, glass) and technology including electric lighting, and was defined by its coupling of the fine and the decorative arts. But perhaps the movement’s most recognizable manifestation in any of its interpretations from Austria to Belgium to Spain is in curvilinear, sinuous forms and whiplash motifs akin to “the crack of a whip” that were derived in part from botanical studies and illustrations– one manifestation of the movement’s dependence on ornamentation that duplicated forms based in nature, like flowers, vines, insect wings, shells and feathers.

Art Nouveau style was expressed internationally, known by different monikers like Jugendstil in Germany, Le Style Métro in France, the Vienna Succession in Austria or Liberty Style earlier on in its development. Truly, its inception was in England, in the British Arts and Crafts movement, at William Morris’ Red House, in Victorian eclecticism, and even in the iron and glass spectacle of the Great Exhibition of 1851. The innovative designs of Scottish architect Charles Rennie MacKintosh stood at the gateway of Art Nouveau in their “free” style and decorative elements like metalwork, stained-glass, specially designed furniture, and lighting detail. Even more profound was that MacKintosh’s preferences, like those of the Art Nouveau designers and those of Modernist movements also, underscored a look forward as opposed to Historicism or Revivalism that looked backward and replicated design that worked in in previous ages – still, he didn’t discard it all, borrowing from Scottish vernacular forms, like the whitewashed walls and the irregularly placed windows of highland structures of old and on Celtic patterns. Of course, he also took cues from other British designers contemporary to him like E.W.Godwin and Charles Voysey. MacKintosh was also influenced as were other Art Nouveau designers by Japanese style that had permeated since its popularity with the Victorians. MacKintosh was equally innovative as a designer in his collaboration with his own relatives in articulating a MacKintosh style; his wife, artist Margaret MacDonald, worked closely with him in much of her work as in for example the gesso panels as seen in many of the MacKintosh designed tearooms. Along with Margaret’s sister Frances and her husband Herbert McNair, the group became known as the “Glasgow Four.” Together, they designed paintings, illustrations, textiles, iron and glass work, wall murals and more.

Although Art Nouveau and related styles lean heavily on the use of curvilinear forms, and certainly we see this is some of MacKintosh’s designed ironwork, stained glass or illustration (hence, the ubiquitous MacKintosh rose), MacKintosh frequently incorporated into his design geometric and linear forms that branded his aesthetic: ladder rung chairs with exaggerated back height and tall, long rectangular windows or stained glass panels, all emphasizing vertical space. We even have the MacKintosh font with its narrow width and railed letters. Most of MacKintosh’s architectural work was done in Glasgow, Scotland, the most extensive and well-known of which was the Glasgow School of Art. He also designed Glasgow’s Queen’s Cross Church, the Cranston Tearooms and the Glasgow Herald building, or “The Lighthouse” as it is known. MacKintosh further distinguished himself in the design of Hill House in Scotland, almost as well-known as his work at GSA. He drafted designs for other structures that were never constructed like the “Haus eines Kunstfreundes,” the Art Lover’s House, built after his death.

MacKintosh’s Glasgow designs typify his style: feminine but not sensual or undulating like those of the continental Art Nouveau, pale and pastel colors often including pink, amethyst, or lilac but also more dramatic hues like black, white and silver, floral inspired motifs, subtle curves yet also right angles. Notable in the design of GSA are an asymmetrical entrance façade with a curved pediment and bay windows, two short towers of different heights, enormous multi-paned windows on either side of the front door set amongst sandstone bricks and ironwork both curved and linear, with some flower and leaf iron ornamentation. In contrast to the sandstone exterior, the library is ensconced in dark wood, light streaming in from the paned windows. Wood support beams under a second tier balcony and wood paneled walls stretch the space upward two stories to a seemingly coffered ceiling covered like-wise in dark wood. Vertical barring and rectilinear shapes dot the room, from ornamented paneling on the balcony, to the geometrically-shaped hanging pendant lamps, to the table leg ornamentation.

MacKintosh style was not at the zenith of Art Nouveau expression. However, his unique vision informed and supported its development if not belonged to it. MacKintosh was a child of the Aesthetic movement that had taken cues from Gothic revivalism, and theorists like Pugin and Ruskin, who like French Gothic Revival architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc advocated a return to handcraftmanship and a unity of the arts as “Art Nouveau designers endeavored to achieve the synthesis of art and craft, and further, the creation of spiritually uplifting Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art)” (Gontar). While MacKintosh labored in Glasgow, Belgian architect and designer Victor Horta expressed the Art Nouveau in his architectural projects with accentuated with tiled walls and electric lighting. In Paris, Art Nouveau has become synonymous with architect Hector Guimard who was commissioned to design entrances and other decorative features of Paris Métro stations among other things, and several Art Nouveau artists like designer Eugène Vallin and glassmaker Emile Gallé were situated in Nancy, France. Of course, Jugendstil in Germany and Scandanavia and Vienna Successionists made their contributions to the legacy of Art Nouveau, as did American artist Louis Comfort Tiffany with his stained glass, Czech born Alphonse Mocha, and in Spain, Antonio Gaudí established Catalan Modernismo, a version of Art Nouveau that incorporated fantastical sculpture, broken tile mosaic, and Moorish design. Gaudí’s Segrada familia cathedral is still being built today.