Mackintosh celebrations
Modelling Class (c.1910) The Glasgow School of Art Archives and Collections
The Glasgow School of Art is celebrating the centenary of its Mackintosh Building with an exhibition looking at its early 20th century (until 6 February)
As well as original drawings for the landmark building by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, The Flower and the Green Leaf showcases work from the four departments existing at the time – Drawing and Painting, Modelling and Sculpture, Design and Decorative Art, and Architecture. The idea is to look at how art was taught at the time – the school’s innovative methods of teacher education influenced art teaching in the country for several decades – and explore the achievements of its pupils and staff.
Craft aficionados will be particularly interested by the section on textiles as the school was the birthplace of the popular Glasgow Style of Needlework, a Scottish amalgam of Art Nouveau and Mackintosh-style forms normally realised in appliqué. It was really started by Jessie Newbery who set up the influential Embroidery Department at the school in 1894 and was continued by pupils such as Ann Macbeth who popularised the style through a series of Saturday classes. Other influential names working at the school at this time were the Belgian Symbolist painter Jean Delvill, the Dutch sculptor Johan Keller and Robert Anning Bell who was responsible for the mosaics at Westminster Cathedral.
www.gsa.ac.uk
