Talks
18 Jan 12:00
Until 18 Jan, 13:00 1h
"Charles Rennie Mackintosh and George Wyllie - how to manage the legacies of two great Scottish artists.
This talk will take a broad brush overview of the legacies of two Glasgow-based artists who became celebrated a hundred years apart. Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868 to 1928) spearheaded a style that is now recognised around the world. George Wyllie (1920 to 2012) produced accessible public art such as the Straw Locomotive (1987) and other sculptures. A new gallery in his name opened in 2024 in Greenock.
- Charles Rennie Mackintosh was born in Glasgow and at a young age produced a number of remarkable buildings for clients including the Glasgow School of Art (1897 to 1907), the Hill House in Helensburgh (1902), the Willow Tearooms in Sauchiehall Street (1903), as well as schools and commercial buildings. He collaborated with his wife Margaret Macdonald to produce drawings and designs which are now immediately recognisable as Mackintosh. However after he died in 1928, relatively unknown and short of work, his reputation waned to almost nothing until a number of enthusiasts got together to reclaim his contribution to architecture and design.The Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society was formed in 1973 to revive CRM’s reputation, and has been successful in helping to keep his designs and buildings in the public eye ever since. However, there are serious challenges facing the Society and the world of built heritage in 2025 and the recent fires at the Glasgow School of Art are an extreme example of how in the UK the built heritage is not as well regarded as it is elsewhere in Europe. It is hoped that by Mackintosh’s centenary in 2028, the Society will have helped make a difference to this fragile state of affairs. Like all Societies, the CRM Society depends on membership being active, and newer and younger members are always encouraged! Of the nearly 1,000 current members, 200 are in the USA or Europe.Glasgow-born George Wyllie was a customs officer in Greenock in the 1950s and 1960s. He started to make sculptures and all manner of items based on his view of the world which included maritime themes as well as philosophical ideas. He exhibited at the old Third Eye Centre and by 1980 he had taken early retirement and turned his hand to producing art full-time.His "Straw Locomotive", a full-sized engine made of chicken wire and straw won a Channel 4 competition in 1987 to display public art around the UK. The artwork lamented the demise of the manufacturing industry in Glasgow. The huge artwork hung from the Finnieston Crane in 1987 and attracted a large number of people. At the 1988 Garden Festival, George was the artist of choice for many exhibitors and several of his pieces were on display In 1990 he created the “Paper Boat”, another comment on the death of shipbuilding on the Clyde. This huge “paper” creation was even more successful, travelling to the Thames and even to New York.George was prolific and successful with his smaller sculptures, some of which he just gave away. Amongst many items, he made a beautiful public display for the 50th anniversary of the end of World War 2 representing the aftermath of Hiroshima, a place he had actually visited in the latter part of 1945 when he was a sea cadet on a Royal Navy ship, one of the first to enter the shattered city, post-bomb.After this death in Gourock in 2010, Inverclyde Council agreed to help create a gallery for his work in association with a private donor and the Wyllie family who loaned many items of his. George’s work is now displayed in a new building in the Ocean Terminal in Greenock, at the very place where he was a Customs Officer.These two artists, quite different in style and output, but very much of Glasgow, are represented by two different Foundations, neither of which currently receive any public subsidy. The challenge is how to find ways of surviving in the future if they are to still exist to allow the public to see the splendid work that these two talented men produced.
- Michael Dale studied at the University of St Andrews, graduating in 1972. While there he acted in plays, wrote for the University newspaper and co-directed the first St Andrews Festival, run entirely by students. In 1981 he came to Edinburgh from London and Cambridge where he had been a theatre manager to be the Director of the world-famous Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In 1986 he moved to Glasgow to be the Director of Events for the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival, helping to write Glasgow’s application to become the European Capital of Culture in 1990. He has lived in Glasgow ever since, either producing a number of events and festivals all over the UK.He created the West End Festival in Glasgow in 1996 and produced this popular community event for 25 years until he stepped down in 2021. He was asked to become chairman of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society based at the lovely Mackintosh Queen’s Cross church in 2023.While at the Fringe, he commissioned George Wyllie to produce a large-scale public art work for Fringe Sunday in Holyrood Park. As a result, he worked with George at the 1988 Garden Festival and helped produce a number of public events with George until 2000. In 2023 he became a Trustee of the George Wyllie Foundation and also found himself being asked to be the chairman of that.
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