The Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement has announced the opening of a new exhibition in March. Design the New: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style is a touring exhibition organized by the Glasgow Museums and the American Association of Arts.
It is the first touring exhibition in the United States in a generation by the famous Scottish architect, designer, and artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928). Many works have not been shown in the United States before. The tour began in 2019 in Baltimore, and the exhibition in the USA has a stop at the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement in Saint Petersburg, from March 11 to June 5.
The gallery features 166 artworks and designs by Mackintosh and the Glasgow School of Art. It features primary works by Mackintosh, including graphic designs for posters and high-back chairs for artistic tea rooms, along with lesser-known works in textiles, interior design, and watercolors he painted in the last years of his life. It highlights his relationship with influential artists and collaborators and his hometown of Glasgow.
![Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Designer). High back chair for Ingram Street tea rooms, 1900-1901. Stained oak, modern horsehair upholstery, 59 x 18 5/8 x 17 1/8 in. Glasgow Museums. Acquired by the Glasgow Corporation, as part of the Ingram Street Tearooms, 1950 © CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 4499 6577"/%3E "Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Designer). High back chair for Ingram Street tea rooms, 1900-1901. Stained oak, modern horsehair upholstery, 59 x 18 5/8 x 17 1/8 in. Glasgow Museums. Acquired by the Glasgow Corporation, as part of the Ingram Street Tearooms, 1950 © CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection.")
The Glasgow style came from the Arts and Crafts movement to become the only British response to Art Nouveau in the late 1890s and into the 20th century. The exhibition highlights the Glasgow School of Art’s encouragement of female designers, as well as the processes involved in creating the furnishings, interiors and artwork that define Glasgow style. Audio and visual components enhance the elements and bring the architecture of the Glasgow School to life.
Many artists of the Arts and Crafts movement have been inspired by Mackintosh’s and the works of the Glasgow School, and related pieces will be featured in the Museum’s collection with educational programmes.
“(The Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement) is delighted to have the opportunity to present the amazing and historically significant works of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow School, and contemporaries of Arts and Crafts in America,” Rudy Chicarillo, Museum President, in a press release. “The New Design provides an opportunity to see the permanent collection of MAACM in the light of its international context, illuminating the many links between the two movements.”
Design the New is curated by Alison Brown, Curator of Glasgow Museum of European Decorative Art and Design from 1800 to the present. Works included in the exhibition are from the civic collections of Glasgow Museums, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow and The Glasgow School of Art, and loans from private collections.
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Extensive programs are planned through the operation of the exhibition in the museum. A fully illustrated catalog will be available for purchase in the Museum Store.
For more information, visit Museumaacm.org.