C.R. Mackintosh : The Poetics of Workmanship

Between 1896 and 1906, Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) produced a series of buildings and interiors in and around Glasgow of such startling invention that he immediately established himself as one of the truly great figures in early twentieth-century architecture and design. David Brett argues that Mackintosh's originality was grounded in a highly subjective "poetics of workmanship," in which the structure, features, interiors, and furnishings of each individual building became subject to a unifying system of forms, metaphors, and unconscious associations. The system Mackintosh evolved--which began with his early drawing shaped by the Victorian tradition of art botany--allowed for the formulation of an almost infinite series of ensembles.

After focusing on the various decorative details and interior spaces of Mackintosh's buildings, the author reaches to the heart of Mackintosh's poetic system--the diffused eroticism of the sleek, "feminine," and intensely private white interiors. A notable feature of this persuasive reappraisal of Mackintosh's work is the wealth of photographs by the author showing rarely featured details of buildings, interiors, and furnishings.

David Brett is Reader in the History of Design at the University of Ulster, Belfast. He is also a playwright, novelist and mountaineer.