The Flower and the Green Leaf

About the Book: 

Charles Rennie Mackintosh memorably likened art to a flower and life itself to the foliage that accompanies its growth. This book explores for the first time the uniquely vibrant artistic and social culture that combined, in the early decades of the twentieth century, to make Glasgow School of Art one of the most outstanding institutions in the history of art education.

Glasgow School of Art is known the world over for the pivotal role it played in the creation of the ‘Glasgow Style’ and for the radical originality of the building it commissioned in 1897. As the building’s architect, and the most brilliant designer of his generation, Charles Rennie Mackintosh looms large in any account of the impact Glasgow made on the European art scene in the early twentieth century, and the Mackintosh Building is rightly recognised as the most complete manifestation of his design philosophy.

And yet it was never Mackintosh’s intention to create an ‘icon’ of architectural history. Designed first and foremost as an environment for teaching and learning, it provided the context for successive waves of emergent practitioners to engage with the full spectrum of art and design disciplines, from needlework to mural decoration, from mechanical drawing to the design of public buildings. Mackintosh’s genius lay in his ability to create spaces that are breathtakingly beautiful but also eminently practical in satisfying the day-to-day demands of a thriving community of creative individuals.

Although the building and the art movement that produced it have been chronicled in a multitude of other publications, very little has been written about what went on inside its walls. This study seeks to set the record straight. Drawing on a wealth of new research, it examines in detail the unique educational culture that flourished at the time when the building was first occupied. Artists and designers who have previously been relegated to the background of Scottish art history are now presented as fully rounded personalities, while students who later went on to achieve international recognition are revealed here in all the uncertainty of their formative years. This book is about the hopes and aspirations – and the occasional disappointments – of the cohorts of students and teachers who had the good fortune to be the first to work in the most remarkable art school building in the world.

About the Authors:

ALISON BROWN is the Curator of European Decorative Art at Glasgow Museums, Culture & Sport Glasgow. A number of her articles have been published, including 'Reassessing Mackintosh's Design of the Willow Tearooms.'

RAY McKENZIE is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Historical and Critical Studies at Glasgow School of Art. His publications include: Sculpture in Glasgow: an illustrated handbook.

DR ROBERT PROCTOR is a Lecturer in History of Architecture at the Mackintosh School of Architecture at Glasgow School of Art and has written articles for Architectural History. Dr George Rawson is the former Fine Art Librarian at Glasgow School of Art and is now an independent art historian based in Glasgow and a specialist on nineteenth-century art education.

JOHNNY ROGER is a critic for numerous magazines, journals and newspapers, and has authored several full-length critical works.