Charles rennie mackintosh art deco

The figurehead of the Glasgow School movement, Charles Rennie Mackintosh is remembered for his prolific contributions to international Art Nouveau.

Charles rennie mackintosh products

Get to know Charles Rennie Mackintosh through the lens of his most interesting and innovative designs, from the famous Mackintosh rose to his lesser-known, late-career watercolors. If you ever come across a turn-of-the-century cabinet, a swatch of fabric, or even a modern-day museum souvenir featuring a simplified rose motif—it was probably designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

The Mackintosh rose is a rounded aesthetic distortion almost beyond recognition. Indeed, of all his work, the Mackintosh rose especially epitomizes what made Mackintosh a groundbreaking designer. The Mackintosh rose successfully combines seemingly disparate aesthetics into one harmonious whole. Geometric angles complement organic curves, and heavy industrial materials interplay with delicate pastel colors—and the resulting motif is stunningly simple and versatile.

When you observe the composition closely, you notice that every rose, albeit simple, is subtly different from the rest. This emphasizes the creative interplay between the modern simplicity of geometry and the wild, organic nature of a real-life rosebush. One of the reasons why the Mackintosh rose resonates is that it can stand alone as a piece of art and add character to a more complex total design.

The second example pictured is an illustration that Mackintosh designed to decorate the front of a wooden cabinet. The subject is a woman holding a rose. But instead of creating a representational composition, Charles Rennie Mackintosh viewed the subject as an opportunity to push the aesthetic boundaries of line, form, and scale.

As an emerging young architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh entered and won a competition to design a new building for his alma mater. His daringly modern design for the new Glasgow School of Art building became his first and most significant architectural commission.