Designing the New: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style

Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s name is synonymous with modern design.

Designing the New: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style will be the first US exhibition in a generation to highlight the architect and designer’s innovative work, and explore the larger circle of artists and craftspeople with whom he collaborated.

Featuring a variety of media including furniture, posters, textiles, architectural drawings, books, and ceramics, Designing the New: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style celebrates the 150th anniversary of Mackintosh’s birth. The exhibition will highlight the process of making, the international influences and impact of the Glasgow Style, and the Glasgow School of Art’s support and encouragement of women artists. Approximately 165 works, drawn from the best of Glasgow Museums’ internationally renowned civic collections, alongside key pieces from The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, The Glasgow School of Art, and important loans from private collections will be on display.

Spanning Mackintosh’s lifetime (1868-1928), the exhibition will present his work in the context of his key predecessors, contemporaries, and the international influences from which they drew inspiration, including Japanese tsubas, Islamic tiles, and extraordinary bookbindings. Visitors can explore some of these inspirations in the Walters collection. The exhibition also establishes a link between Glasgow and Baltimore as industrial cities that produced rich artistic traditions and cultures as they grew.

co-organized by Glasgow Museums and the American Federation of Arts

Curator: Alison Brown, Glasgow Museum’s Curator for European Decorative Art and Design from 1800 to the present
Organizing curator: Jo Briggs, Associate Curator of 18th and 19th Century Art, The Walters Art Museum

Designing the New: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style is a touring exhibition co-organized by Glasgow Museums and the American Federation of Arts. The exhibition comprises works from the collections of Glasgow City Council (Museums and Collections), with loans from Scottish collections and private lenders. Support for the U.S. national tour is provided by the Dr. Lee MacCormick Edwards Charitable Foundation.

The Walters Art Museum’s presentation is made possible by generous support from the Women’s Committee of the Walters Art Museum and The St. Andrew’s Society of Baltimore.