September, 5 – November, 9, 2014

One-Pillar Chamber of the Patriarch's Palace

The Moscow Kremlin Museums are glad to present you the oeuvre of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868–1928) – an outstanding Scottish architect, painter and designer. Having graduated from the Glasgow School of Art, Mackintosh with time became one of the most significant representatives of Art Nouveau in British architecture. As the majority of his creative contemporaries Mackintosh is referred to as an artist-versatile, distinguished for innovative experiments with forms, techniques and materials.  His works, having had a serious impact on the development of European architecture and design throughout the XXth century, are still considered to be of the highest aesthetic value. The project is intended to reveal the unique beauty of artworks by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and present the development of his original artistic method and style.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was the first representative of the Scottish Art Nouveau. Retrospective of his major architectural projects, preserved to this day, — the Glasgow School of Art, the Hill House at Helensburgh, the Willow Tearooms, Queen's Cross Church in Glasgow — reveal certain references to artistic and architectural tradition of Scotland. A medieval castle served as an ideal model for his design projects.  A talented architect — Charles Mackintosh — has invented and practiced the technique of combining modern construction materials — concrete, mirror glass, steel. His architectural designs often included extensive specifications for the detailing, decoration, and furnishing of his buildings.

Working on interiors decoration, Mackintosh tried to combine different forms of art — he created unique furniture, decoration items, stained-glass windows, textiles. He has designed a new recognizable style, the hallmark of which is the famous «mackintosh» chair. One of his inventions was to use stencils for modelling recurring decorative motifs in elegant interiors. Mackintosh is also recognized as a talented graphic artist, who created designs for posters, magazine covers, postcards, merchandise marks of Scottish firms.

The exposition incorporates Mackintosh’s distinctive architectural drawings with his designs for interiors, furniture, crafted for the most famous design projects of Mackintosh, interior utensils and decorations, stained glass as well as his exquisite watercolours and drawings, posters and stencils, and the flower paintings he hoped would be seen as «beautiful, living things»  which represent another aspect of the talent of this brilliant Scottish artist.

The Glasgow School of Art, the undisputed masterpiece of Mackintosh's early period, deeply rooted in Scotland's vernacular traditions, yet truly innovative, embodied the architect's idea of «total design», and quickly established itself as a leading example of the «Glasgow Style». Unfortunately, this magnificent building was ravaged by fire in May 2014 and some of the exhibits have been damaged — due to these tragic circumstances the collection from the Glasgow School of Art is not represented at the exposition. We express our sincere wishes for a successful restoration of its interiors in the near future.    

The exhibition, dedicated to such a distinguished artist, is one of the Kremlin Museums' cultural projects, intended for introducing the Russian audience to world art masterpieces of the XXth century.

General partners:

Partner:

With the participation of:

General media partner:

Media partners: