Analyzing the Total Work of Art Charles Renee Mackintosh

Total Work of Art: Charles Renee Mackintosh Born on June 7, 1868, in Glasgow, Mackintosh, worked as an apprentice under one of the local architects named John Hutchison, however, he changed to the more stable and established Honeyman and Keppie city practice in 1889. As a way of complementing his architectural apprenticeship, Mackintosh got enrolled into evening classes at the school of art in Glasgow, where he partook in a number of drawing programs.

While in the art school, Mackintosh in the company of Herbert MacNair, his friend and colleague, ran into the famous artist sisters, Frances and Margaret Macdonald. These four talented artists formed a group and specialized in furniture designs, illustration and metalwork, and developed several weird-looking images, which were very distinctive. Such images included abstracted female images and certain metamorphic lines that reminded one of Aubrey Beardsley. They got to be known as the spook school, a nickname they earned as a result of their unique style.

However, in certain places like England, their works were received with a level of suspicion due to the decadent influence their works had on Continental Art Nouveau (The Glasgow School of Art). Here, under the keen eyes of Francis Newberry, the headmaster, he flourished in his profession and was able to consult the most recent architecture in the School's library and created journals with an increased awareness of the efforts of his likes, at home and in Diaspora.

He was awarded a number of student prizes and won different competitions such as the coveted Alexander Thompson Travelling Studentship of 1890, which gave him the chance to embark on an architectural tour of Italy (Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society). Most of Mackintosh' work was carried out in Glasgow, which explains why the best among his works still remains in Glasgow till to-date. However, Mackintosh left Glasgow for London where he sought greener pastures, but unfortunately, he died in London unnoticed.

Most people think it is ironic that his own native city gave him little or no recognition at that time. This was so unlike the recognition he received in Glasgow, where he came to be known as the originator of the famous Glasgow Style and among the major driving forces behind the modern approach to architecture (The Glasgow School of Art).

Gesamtkunstwerk, which literarily means, Total work of art, is the belief that all works of art, including music, painting, architecture, literature, etc., can be made into one interrelated topic, project and research. Using the term in architectural papers shows that the architect is solely responsible for designing and overseeing the totality of the building's shell, furnishings, accessories, and landscape. Charles Rennie Mackintosh is known to be among those later architects who related intimately to the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk.

The image in figure 1 is the Glasgow School of Art, which was one of the very first designs created by Mackintosh, and displays his obvious break with the culture. There is a clear contrast between the sandstone and the obvious smoothness of the massive paned windows, while there is a divergence of the visual geometric shape of the building from the lithe bends of black steel, which were located on the sill of the windows and placed in an arc above the entrance.

When they opened the Glasgow School of Art building to the general public in 1899, its critics became awed by the building's fine design and artistic simplicity (Muir, 7). They started taking note of Mackintosh as an architect to watch, even though he was never given full credit for the breathtaking design of the building, since all his designs were placed under his firm's signature. However, in 1901, Honeyman and Keppie made Mackintosh a partner when he was 33, partly due to his awesome and famous building design of the Glasgow Art School.

This partnership gave him the opportunity to become more creative and equally the chance to receive full credit for his designs. Figure 1: The Glasgow School of Art building (Adopted from Muir, 7) With the huge influence Gesamtkunstwerk had on the increase in the twentieth century interior design popularity in Glasgow, the projects Mackintosh handled for Honeymen and Keppie in the early 1890s, showed an increased level of maturity. His (1894) Glasgow Herald Building design included some uncommon innovative technology such as a hydro-pneumatic lift system and fire-resistant concrete flooring made of diatomite.

Later in (1895) at the Matrtyr's Public School, in spite of a restricted brief, he succeeded in introducing complex, but regulated detailing like the fundamental roof trusses. In 1893, at an architectural public lecture, Mackintosh presented an argument that both designers and architects ought to be given higher artistic independence and freedom.

He started experimenting with several decorative ideas, creating new furniture designs, as well as graphic arts and metalwork (This included highly stylized watercolors and posters), always in partnership with Honeymen and Keppie, his friend and colleague, Herbert MacNair and two other students, Frances and Margret Macdonald (Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society). Mackintosh gained his highest commission in 1896, to create a new building design for the Glasgow School of Art. This turned out to be his masterpiece.

The building design was significantly done in two clear phases, 1897-99 and 1907-09, as a result of limited cash. In a stylistic way, this delay gave Mackintosh the opportunity to make amendments and include his original 1896 design in the new design. This original design owed much to the earlier baronial tradition of Scotland with the second half of the building carrying the 20th century design outlook using new materials and technology.

The new Library turned out to be the most dramatic of the interior (concluded in 1909), which comprised of a complex connection of beam and timber posts. Traditional Japanese domestic interiors inspired its construction, but the building was ultimately a mixture of influence and style (Harris). All over Europe, the uniqueness of Mackintosh designs was appreciated quickly, and in Germany, and especially in Austria, he got the recognition and acclaim he was never to be given at home for his beautiful designs.

He was part of the 8th Vienna Secession and took part in the Turin, Moscow international exhibition and some other places. In 1900, he got involved in one open competition to create a new design for one art lover, which was suggested by one German design journal, Zeitschrift fur Innendekoration, in 1900. Although he could not win the competition, his designs were judged to be so perfect that they were reproduced to be used as a portfolio of prints.

In 1904, back in Scotland at then Helensburgh Hill House, Walter Blackie, the publisher, commissioned Mackintosh to create a design for a substantial family house. The design he produced owed much in appearance to what he designed for the art lover competition and an earlier design for domestic use- Windyhill (1900).

On the outside, The Hill House was significant for its slid massed and simple forms with very little ornamentation, yet, on the inside, there were no light and space in the rooms, and there was a careful conception of the use of decoration and color (Harris; Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society). All through his career, Mackintosh depended on just a number of supporters and patrons.

Catherine Cranston, the Glasgow businesswoman, turned out to be the most influential while her range of tearoom interiors (designed and furnished between 1896-1917), gave him virtual freedom to experiment. Given the task of creating the tearoom designs, Mackintosh provided the furniture (including the amazing high-back chairs), wall decorations, light fittings and cutlery. Despite the successes he enjoyed in Europe and the support he got from clients like Blackie and Cranston, Mackintosh's work was treated with indifference at home, which led to a decline in his career (Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society).

The Hill House and Willow Tearoom both offer great examples of Mackintosh transformation to Viennese restrained inspiration. Nevertheless, I opine that the most powerful example of obvious level of Viennese influence on Mackintosh is very visible in the interiors he created in 1917 for the benefit of the Basset-Lowke family. In this family home, Mackintosh created a design for the dining room, the hall, the living room, one upstairs bedroom and the kitchen.

This 78 Derngate's home interiors were obviously different from the earlier interior designs created by Mackintosh, sticking strictly to the geometric lines, using dark woods and deep primary colors, and the huge preference for the use of the triangle as a vital decorative tool. While every one of the Derngate interiors displays heavy inspiration from both the Wiener Werkstatte and Hoffman, indisputably, the room that shows the Vienesse influence most clearly is the hall.

This room has several elements that can be found in Hoffmarm's designs, such as geometric wallpaper, patterning with lattice, and using a focal white fireplace making use of stacked squares to create an H shape. The floor comprises of white and black checkerboard style, while the walls are covered in wallpaper or with ebonized wood lattice panels. The dark walls make the white fireplace more pronounced, and the sitting corner is equally painted white, which gives the delusion that the small room is much larger than its normal size.

In addition to the facade about the largeness of the room, is the use of mirrored cabinets as well as a mirrored inbuilt, half-sized grandfather wall clock. To conserve space, most of the storage of the room is in-built, which includes the shelves and bookcases that enclose the fireplace. Mackintosh never made use of inbuilt furniture before Derngate, and these inbuilt furnishings reminds one of the ones used by Hoffinann in the Biach home, in terms of functionality and style (Knichin; Muir, 28).

The Function of Current, Decorative Arts that are Publicly Available The notion of Gesamtkunstwerk can also be put into use in today's designs more effectively, as the technique of combining these arts together to create better masterpieces continues to get popular.

Employing it in a workshop setting enables the performers of every kind get a better understanding of the aspect of the art they might have been unfamiliar with, which gives them the chance to discover greater links publicly and equally be able to have a grasp of what art really is generally. A totality is conceived in the exercise Gesamtkunstwerk. The architect imagines a theme and makes efforts to bring it to reality in a very consistent, cohesive and coherent manner.

While sticking to a general scheme, full attention is given to an unbelievable amount of information, but certain parts may experience hardship to make the bigger or whole picture a reality (perhaps similar to the synergy concept, where the whole constitutes a larger part than the totality of the individual parts that constitutes it). Harmony or unity is the resultant in Gesamtkunstwerk. However, one wonders whether the whole of the overall work of art can be really conceived, or executed.

And if possible, will its practical existence make its transcendental existence impossible? If a person thinks a complete work of art is very possible and achievable, does it not save such a person from the effects of the exoteric realities, by being museum-like and sterile? (perhaps, in this restrictive condition, expressing architecture as art, and architecture as Gesamtkunstwerk, is somehow synonymous).

And, if art becomes the ultimate way of expressing the creativity of man, a search that never ends, possessing a complete artistic expression kills the desire for more search, as revealed by the realization of a dream and a goal, setting limits that are easily attainable or expectations that are quite low (Finger; Muir, 19). A complete art work is expected to be constituted of perfection all through.

In the physical sense, assuming such condition is quite misleading, as the highest level of efficiency can never get up to 100% as a result of the presence of losses that are noticeable (The Second Law of Classical Thermodynamics). Is the subjective entity-artistic perfection-ever feasible? In the realm of the metaphysical, complete expression takes place following destruction, so maybe a complete art work gets to perfection when it stops existing (Proposing an ephemeral or perishable art?).

Gesamtkunstwerk possessing the cohesive nature of a chain can be easily broken or offset by one minute apart. In this case, it can be said to be an unstable architecture, being dynamic and static at the same time, and an architecture with a potential high entropy level. Perhaps, Gesamtkunstwerk appealing to a number of designers is due to the fact that furniture is in anticipation of architectural futures, with minimal cost experiments and certain efforts with space and form (Muir, 20; Harris).

Mackintosh's furniture and interiors, in 1903, also started displaying very obvious changes in the vernacular of design. Mackintosh started moving away from the capricious curves, the all-white schemes, and the colored glass accents with stains, which he earlier used in such acclaim in the interior designs he created like the Ingram Tea Rooms and his personal Main Street apartments. His architecture and designs started showing a move in the direction of Succinct Rationalization with adherence to some strict geometrical shapes.

The Mackintosh's Willow Tea Room interiors (Fig.2) (developed in 1903 for the popular business lady named Miss Cranston), are to a large extent, more quiet and subtle, in terms of design and color palette, even when standing in comparison to the Ingram Street Tea Rooms designed by Mackintosh in 1900, which was made three years earlier for Miss Cranston.

With regards to the Willow Tea Rooms furniture, elements were introduced, which included a lattice prototype, a move to a deeper and richer color scheme, and an obvious preference for ebony stained silver and wood painted wooden furniture, as against white painted wooden furniture (Finger; Muir, 21).

Figure 2: Glasgow Willow Tea Rooms: White Dining Room (Adopted from Muir, 21) Mackintosh in 1902 was commissioned by the publisher, Walter Blackie of the famous Blackie and Sons Limited, to help him design a mansion for his family use, which was to be named the Hill House.

Due to the fact that Mackintosh had been able to design only a few buildings from the interior to the exterior, his work on the Hill House project turned out to one great example of his rare artistic skills when it comes to building designs and creating complete work of art, and it equally does the job of a halfway point when it comes to his design language.

It is a good combination of the hard shell, which was often characterized by terms such as sober, strong, objective, Empiricist and white interiors...and this brings about the use of certain adjectives such as decorated, soft, fantastic, idealistic, etc. This home has rooms designed with the Mackintosh traditional white designs and furniture, but with straight lines representing the normal curves. The house equally contains some dark, symmetrical interior designs with the addition of wood accents and primary colored glass.

Two very masculine interiors found in the Hill House project includes the hallway and the library (Fig.3). This hallway possesses a very strong visual effect due to the effects of the cut out squares found in the beams and furniture, and the use of very dark stain with an ebony appearance. When getting into the hallway, a visitor would easily emerge from the vestibule and get to the hallway's major floor, and would be welcome by a dark interior with veridical shapes that is well-lit.

The pillars in the vestibule contain incised circles, an element that is missing in Mackintosh interiors. This practice of using incised circles is quite related to the issue of mahogany stained beach wooden spats of the chairs found in Purkersdorf Santorium. As against the Hill House bedrooms' white painted furniture, the furniture found in this room has a sturdy utility with very little reference to the organic types.

Even Billclife, a passionate critic of the idea of Mackintosh taking any form of inspiration from Hoffmann or Vienna, accepts that the Hill House geometric furniture displays a linear precision of a more Austrian and Germanic nature and that in the interiors he created for the Hill House, what intrigued Mackintosh was the interiors and not the whimsical aspects of the building (Muir, 25). Figure 3: Hill House Entrance (Adopted from Muir, 25).

The hallway represents the example of a shift from Mackintosh's sterile interiors found in Main Street Apartments, towards a more livable, functional, and intimate interiors. Nevertheless, his staunchly middle-class client, Blackie could have influenced this. Blackie and Ruth had four kids and probably needed a home that suited their Edwardian beliefs of private, sacred and family aspects of their home. 105 Blackie equally told Mackintosh he couldn't use entirely new furnishings, where the interiors would include the more conventional Victorian furniture of Blackie.

Nevertheless, Blackie, with a sense of amazement, mentioned every item was given a detailed attention by Mackintosh, despite having to stick to a budget and considering the middle-class requirements (Knichin). The Importance of the Client Gesamtkunstwerk application; it is hard to imagine any vital creative contribution made by the client, since most times the architect is totally in charge. A number of patrons, as a matter of fact, support such approach.

In the David Gamble Pasadena residence situation (1908), for example, the Gambles handed everything over to the Greene Brothers and chose the Orient, the landscape, residence, the piano, and furniture, as well as the brass screws on the handle of the door. A large amount of detail was given adequate attention, in accordance to the ideas of arts and crafts and the philosophy of the Greene brothers (Vidalis, 7). To Charles Greene, buildings are nothing other than extensions of a man's wardrobe...something with a personal appeal.

Charles Green talking about the Gamble home: Materials talk about their intrinsic qualities of beauty and design. The principle of NOTAN.