First meeting of the season of the local branch of NADFAS today and a notable first for me because I was there too! I finally joined something! The fact deserves another exclamation mark - !!

So the grand kick-off was a lecture (with slides of course) on Charles Rennie Mackintosh. I have never quite been a fan of CRM. firstly because over the last couple of decades he has suffered from overexposure and his designs copied onto tea-trays, tea towels, headscarves, mugs, bookmarks, jewellery, calendars etc. etc. Secondly because the examples I've seen of his furniture and architecture all feature his signature, uncompromisingly straight lines and the repetitive rose emblem and not nearly enough of his romantic stuff (considered 'spooky' by London critics in his day) the flights of imagination that often bring Aubrey Beardsley to mind. They get very little coverage which is a shame. Today I learned that those flights were most probably the work of his wife Margaret. Charles often signed her work - the reason for that is sadly obvious. Women artists weren’t taken seriously in those days.
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The lecturer wasn't the best, with a monotone voice and pacing which failed to hold my monkey mind, but fortunately (for me) he was very repetitive (my friend told me that - she HAD been listening...) so I picked up the main points the third or fourth time round. When I got home I found that I could have read most of them on Wikkipaedia. Not that I'm grumbling. I enjoyed the slides very much and learned that although Charles was born Glasgow his ancestry was in the Highlands of Scotland and he loved the hills and lochs and tried to incorporate the Celtic heritage into his art so the straight lines I somewhat dislike are symbolic of trees, the seeds and leaves are important to him for the same reasons. The other art he loved and allowed to influence him from the Japan, and that is visible in the simplicity of line and grace (now it’s been pointed out to me).

His wife Margaret was responsible for more than just back-up with the twiddlybits, she was an artist in her own right, also trained at the Glasgow School of Art, and is probably to thank for some of the 'spooky' designs that are so beautiful (almost but not quite pre-Raphaelite) also the lovely curvy features that surmount architectural works and pieces of furniture. She was one of the 'Glasgow Girls' of whom we hear little or nothing. She also have influenced Gustav Klimt (he acknowledged this) and other notable artists of the time.

The other sad fact I learned was that, like so many artists and poets, the Mackintoshes were ahead of their time and unappreciated in the parochial society of Glasgow though very popular in the rest of Europe, especially Vienna. Architectural commissions dwindled, the furniture didn’t sell so much and the tea rooms they were responsible for furnishing was considered something of a joke. It was opened to offer an alternative to the many public houses. The tea room looks to have been a beautiful place and I would love to have had tea there. The high-backed chairs almost screened the tea-takers. I can imagine having a highly enjoyable gossip at the tables.

Finding times hard they moved to Suffolk, unfortunately the moment they chose was 1914, and with the outbreak of war no-one was investing in building. The locals seem to regard him and his Scottish accent with mistrust for whilst the couple where out walking one day their house was raided and Charles was briefly arrested on suspicion of spying because so much correspondence was found with people in Vienna!

The moved to London where things went better but they still didn’t get commissions so they tried living in France but, though he painted some fine landscapes, that didn't work out either and eventually in ill health, they returned to London where Charles died, almost insolvent. Only 8 people showed up at the crematorium.

He may have been a difficult man to work with suffering as he did from a form of dyslexia often associated with high intelligence but difficulty in communication - or, perhaps, it was Aspergers Syndrome. It would have made communications with the people who wanted him to build for them very difficult and he was renowned for always going over budget! He also became, again like so many other artists, an alcoholic.

The thought that struck me was that certain artists these days who become millionaires are very, very good self-publicists, behave outrageously, attracting attention to themselves and making them rich. My guess is their work will fade quickly into obscurity so they are remembered by a line or two in a history of art coffee table book.