Mackintosh's Masterwork

The Glasgow School of Art is recognised internationally as a seminal building linking the last decade of the nineteenth century with the entire twentieth century. The School's renown is synonymous with the reputation of its young designer, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who has now become the most celebrated British architect in Europe since a fellow Scot, Robert Adam.On its original publication in 1989, this book was the first full-scale study devoted specifically to the masterwork of Mackintosh, The Glasgow School of Art. Compiled exclusively by members of the School staff, it attempts to answer some of the questions any informed visitor might ask. What was Mackintosh's professional education? What are the sources of his complex symbolism? What were the financial details? Was the client satisfied with the final result?Now in paperback for the first time, Mackintosh's Masterwork includes a contribution by Professor Andrew MacMillan on the significance of the School as a piece of architecture and a discussion of its place in the development of architecture; an account of its difficult construction, and a survey of the arts and crafts in Glasgow, by William Buchanan; a survey of the architecture of Glasgow and Scotland by Dr James Macaulay; a description by Peter Trowles of Mackintosh's furniture for the School using measured drawings, some of Mackintosh's own drawings, and contemporary photographs of the furniture in situ. The book also includes 200 photographs in colour and black and white, a series of computer-generated projections of the building, and a detailed Bibliography by George Rawson.The above elements combine to set the background from which Mackintosh emerged, and to make this publication an invaluable sourcebook to a great building which is both a landmark in one of the several directions architecture was later to take and one of the most stimulating places in which young creative artists work.