| | Charles Rennie Mackintosh by Alan Crawford.
In his World
of Art contribution, Crawford attempts to elucidate
three problems in his examination of the Scottish architect:
the lack of knowledge about the architect's life, the distortion
of facts about the architect (what Crawford calls the Mackintosh
Myth), and his collaboration with his wife Margaret
Macdonald. The first and last seem the least problematic,
the architect's personal life taking a backseat to his body
of work in the case of the first, and the author crediting
the mainly interior projects in the first decade of the
20th century to the husband and wife team, arguably the
height of Mackintosh's career. But dealing with the Mackintosh
Myth, Crawford treats the architect in a much more
down-to-earth, realistic manner over the typical one that
characterizes the architect as a misunderstood genius with
little recognition at home during his lifetime. Both while
and after reading the book, this approach gave me the impression
that Mackintosh's design skills (over the oft-used term
genius) were never realized to their full potential. But
with at least three designs (his masterpiece the Glasgow
School of Art, the Cranston Tea Rooms, and the Hill House)
still well known and appreciated almost a century later,
his reputation as a uniquely skilled architect is fitting,
as any architect would love to have at least one design
with the longevity of one of Mackintosh's.
. . or . .  |
