Display Full Text | Download Full Text
4.64 MB PDF file

Degree

MA, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Art History, 2010.

Abstract

Margaret Macdonald (1864−1933) was a Scottish artist and designer whose marriage to the internationally renowned architect and designer, Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868−1928), has partly obscured the importance of her contributions to art and design. Her collective approach was, in fact, part of what Mackintosh called her "genius," while he considered his own contributions to their projects more akin to "talent or ability." This study is part of the recent scholarship that brings attention to Macdonald’s contributions and crucial roles in collective design work of the modern era. Introducing the study, I evaluate the role of collectivism as it informs Macdonald’s and Mackintosh’s tea-room designs. Next, I examine the influence of the Arts and Crafts style on the design of the couple’s Mains Street flat home. The modern revival of practices used by medieval guilds includes Macdonald’s use of the medium gesso, as I discuss in the second chapter of the study. In concluding, I discuss the "Gesamtkunswerk," the total work of art, in relation to the Music Room that the Scottish couple created for Franz Waerndorfer. With the current study’s focus on Macdonald’s and Mackintosh’s interior designs, I hope to augment understandings of collectivism in order to acknowledge unsung contributions of many modern women and other producers; the hopes that such thinking may continue to inform art making and design today.

Subject Headings

Art History

Keywords

Margaret Macdonald; Charles Rennie Mackintosh; collectivism; Gesamtkunstwerk; modern design

Committee / Advisors

Kimberly Paice, PhD (Committee Chair)
Kristi Ann Nelson, PhD (Committee Member)
Cindy Damschroder, MA, MSArch (Committee Member)

Pages

79p.

Document number: ucin1277497691
Permalink: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1277497691

This ETD has been downloaded 191 times (through March 2013)