Espace Mackintosh

Exposition : Mackintosh, architecte, peintre, designer

Charles Rennie Mackintosh, né à Glasgow en 1868, est l’un des plus grands créateurs du 20ème siècle. Pionnier du Modernisme comme designer et architecte, il s’installe en Roussillon comme peintre, à la fin de sa vie (1923—1927). Bâtiments époustouflants, meubles, tissus, vitraux, aquarelles uniques - trois carrières artistiques dans une vie. L’histoire de sa vie en Roussillon et de sa découverte de la culture et du patrimoine est racontée dans 3 centres d’interprétation (à BÉLESTA, à PORT-VENDRES et AMÉLIE-les-Bains - PALALDA) qui se situent sur le Chemin de Mackintosh.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh et son épouse Margareth ont déjà vécu une année en Roussillon quand ils décident d’y rester définitivement. Lors de l’hiver 1924/1925 ils s’installent à Ille-sur-Têt. Ce fut le début de leur découverte de la vallée de la Têt.

Un espace au Château-Musée de Bélesta retrace la carrière de Mackintosh – d’abord comme architecte / designer en Écosse, puis comme pionnier du Modernisme en Europe et enfin, comme peintre en Roussillon au style évoluant vers le surréalisme. Sur le chemin de Mackintosh, une trentaine de reproductions, positionnées in-situ face aux paysages actuels, vous invitent à découvrir ce pays qu’il a tant aimé...

L'exposition se tient au château musée de 2017 à 2020.

PRESS RELEASE : NEW MACKINTOSH EXHIBITION CENTRE IN FRANCE
NEW MACKINTOSH EXHIBITION CENTRE IN FRANCE

This summer a new exhibition centre is opening at the Chateau Musée of Belesta near Ille-sur-Tet in the Pyrenées Orientales. It is on the ground floor of a 12th century castle which guarded the French frontier against Spain until the frontier moved to its present position in the mid 17th century. What was originally the castle’s wine press has been turned into a small viewing theatre with a film in French and English of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s career before he moved to France and an exhibition of some of his architectural buildings and draped with a selection of his textiles.

A second vaulted room features Mackintosh the designer, with a display of his furniture and a pictures of his ironwork compared with the traditional of Roussillon which greatly interested him. The third section explores Mackintosh the artist with the emphasis on his discovery of the Tet Valley starting with the fruit farms of Ille-sur-Tet and its geological formations and travelling up to the mountain pastures around Mont Louis where the Mackintoshes sent their summers.

A final section, explores influences on Mackintosh’s work and his influence on fellow major artists. This is the last of three exhibition centres about the Mackintosh’s discovery of Roussillon along a trail with over 30 reproductions of his paintings placed on the spot where he sat to paint them. It replaces a previous exhibition at Fort Liberia which proved difficult to access.

Another part of the Belesta museum is dedicated to the discoveries made in a nearby cave of the Neolithic farmers who lived here 6500 years ago – from megalithic to modernism under one roof! Open every day in summer and 5 days a week out of season.