Ed Rossbach

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Experimental fabric designed and woven, using Ikat technique, ca. 1961 Ed Rossbach Craft Horizons 1961 ikat.jpg
Experimental fabric designed and woven, using Ikat technique, ca. 1961
Detail of experimental gauze woven of black cellulose ribbons, ca. 1961 Ed Rossbach Craft Horizons 1961 p33.jpg
Detail of experimental gauze woven of black cellulose ribbons, ca. 1961
'Happy Days', poplar wood, paper and watercolor sculpture, 1991, Metropolitan Museum of Art 'Happy Days', poplar wood, paper and watercolor sculpture by Ed Rossbach (American 1914-2002), 1991, Metropolitan Museum of Art.jpg
'Happy Days', poplar wood, paper and watercolor sculpture, 1991, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ed Rossbach (Chicago, 1914 – Berkeley, California, October 7, 2002) was an American fiber artist. [1] His career began with ceramics and weaving in the 1940s, but evolved over the next decade into basket making, as he experimented playfully with traditional techniques and nontraditional materials such as plastic and newspaper.

Contents

Education

Rossbach earned a BA in Painting and Design at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington in 1940, an MA in art education from Columbia University in New York City in 1941, and an MFA in ceramics and weaving from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in 1947. [2] [3]

Career

Rossbach taught at Puyallup Jr. High School in Puyallup, Washington from 1941 to 1942 before enlisting in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, Alaska Communication System, from 1942 to 1945. After World War II, he taught at the University of Washington School of Art, in Seattle, Washington from 1947 to 1950, and at the University of California, Berkeley from 1950 to 1979. [4]

In 1950 Rossbach married Katherine Westphal, a textile designer, and creator of art quilts and wearable art. [1] Whereas Rossbach felt himself "temperamentally unsuited" to industrial designing, Westphall created commercial textiles during the 1950s. [5] :240 Both were influential teachers and designers who helped to create a transition from mid-century modernism and its emphasis on the functionality of textiles, to nonfunctional fiber art. [5] They saw themselves as artists working in fiber. [6]

Rossbach explored the possibilities of fiber as a material, both on an off the loom. He was strongly influenced by ethnic textiles, including basketry, and often combined ethnic techniques with contemporary materials such as plastic and newspaper. [6] His explorations of three-dimensional forms and basketry as an art form challenged the accepted boundaries of what could be done with craft materials [6] and led to him being considered the "father of contemporary baskets". [7] He has been described as "transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary". [8]

Throughout his career, Rossbach was active in writing and lecturing, publishing books such as Baskets as Textile Art (1973), The New Basketry (1976), The Nature of Basketry (1986), and The Art of Paisley (1980). He wrote about craft and craft artists for the magazines Craft Horizons and American Craft , and was recognized as an honorary Fellow and a gold medalist of the American Craft Council. [9]

Rossbach's works are included in the collections of museums such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, and the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Retrospectives of his work have included Ed Rossbach: 40 Years of Exploration and Innovation in Fiber Art (1990) and Ties that bind: Fiber art by Ed Rossbach and Katherine Westphal from the Daphne Farago collection (1997). [9]

Rossbach died at age 88 after a prolonged illness on October 7, 2002. [8]

Publications

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References

  1. 1 2 Smith, Paul J (1997). Ties that bind: Fiber art by Ed Rossbach and Katherine Westphal from the Daphne Farago collection. Providence, RI: Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. ISBN   9780911517644. OCLC   38092696.
  2. "Museum of Art and Design". Archived from the original on July 10, 2016. Retrieved December 4, 2019.
  3. "Charles Edmund (Ed) Rossbach". American Craft Council. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
  4. "Charles Edmund Rossbach Artist, Mentor, Professor, Writer: With an Introduction by Jack Lenor Larsen. An Interview Conducted by Harriet Nathan in 1983" (PDF). Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley. 1987.
  5. 1 2 Kaplan, Wendy (2011). California Design, 1930-1965 Living In a Modern Way. MIT Press. ISBN   978-0-262-29986-2. OCLC   761845647 . Retrieved April 29, 2024.
  6. 1 2 3 Lauria, Jo; Baizerman, Suzanne; Greenbaum, Toni (2005). California Design: The Legacy of West Coast Craft and Style. Chronicle Books. ISBN   978-0-8118-4374-4. OCLC   607568722.
  7. Kieffer, Susan Mowery (2006). 500 Baskets: A Celebration of the Basketmaker's Art. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. p. 7. ISBN   978-1-57990-731-0. OCLC   1335736228.
  8. 1 2 McLellan, Dennis (October 19, 2002). "Ed Rossbach, 88; Broadened Art Boundaries With Textiles". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 25, 2023.
  9. 1 2 Maclay, Kathleen (October 16, 2002). "UC Berkeley textile expert Ed Rossbach dies at 88". Campus News, UC Berkeley. Retrieved April 29, 2024.