The Radiant Sun – a film about Ruth Adler Schnee

If you happen to be in Winnipeg in mid-April, be sure to stop and check out the excellent Architecture & Design Film Festival, which is put on by the Winnipeg Architecture Foundation. This is an amazing organization dedicated to educating people about architecture and design, with a focus on the years from 1945 – 1975. Last fall they even had an exhibit dedicated to the Trend House Programme, curated with co-operation from Gordon Katelnikof, the son of the architect of the Winnipeg Trend House.

The movie is a documentary about textile designer Ruth Adler Schnee, who studied with the likes of Walter Gropius and Raymond Loewy, and worked with Buckminster Fuller and Eero Saarinen, among others. Aside from some of the distinctive silhouettes of iconic mid-century furniture designs, I find the signature graphic styles of the modern textiles of the era to be some of the most instantly recognizable, and joyful, elements of the era. 

Although none of her textiles were featured in the Trend House Programme (as far as we know), from some of the limited images we’ve been able to gather that the style of textiles was featured in the houses, and it’s definitely one of the things we love about the MCM aesthetic.