Mackintosh and The Glasgow School of Art

Mackintosh’s involvement with the Glasgow School of Art embraced his student, personal and professional lives.

One hundred years ago this year, the Glasgow School of Art building designed by Mackintosh was completed and formally opened on a chill December day. Little notice was taken in the press. It was after all a relatively modest building, begun over ten years before, and was seen by some as old-fashioned when compared to the imposing American-inspired neo-classical office blocks then emerging in Glasgow’s city centre.

Critical fortunes have changed and the Mackintosh building at The Glasgow School of Art is now celebrated internationally as Mackintosh’s architectural masterpiece and one of the most important buildings of its time.

This display marks the centenary by showing designs related to the building. It also draws attention to the other significant roles the School played in Mackintosh’s life, as an educational institution, and as a meeting ground for key lifelong friendships which ranged from those with the School’s charismatic Headmaster, Francis Newbery, to his fellow students.

Drawn from the Hunterian’s unrivalled Mackintosh Collection, 'Mackintosh and The Glasgow School of Art' illustrates these connections through designs, period photographs and archival material.

'Mackintosh and The Glasgow School of Art' forms part of Mackintosh 100, a city-wide programme of events organised by the Mackintosh Heritage Group in the lead-up to the centenary of the Glasgow School of Art.

Regular tours of the School are run on a daily basis. For further details visit www.gsa.ac.uk