Cooper Hewitt says...
Writer, educator, and artisan Charles Edmund Rossbach (1914-2002), or otherwise known as Ed Rossbach, rose to prominence in the American craft community in the second half of the twentieth-century due to his continued experimentation with weaving techniques to create both fabrics and baskets.
Rossbach earned a B.A. from the University of Washington in design and painting (1940) and a master’s degree from Columbia University in art education (1941). During World War II, he served in the Army Signal Corps, and as part of the GI Bill was able to attend Cranbrook Academy of Art. While he was an educator, he stated that he wanted to be “a student doing creative work of my own,” and was able to gain another M.A. in weaving and ceramics (1947).[1] While at Cranbrook, Rossbach studied with Marianne Strengell and Maija Grotell.[2] In the late 1940s Rossbach married Katherine Westphal, who would also become a noted fiber artist with her experimental and wearable works of art.[3] Later, he served as a professor at the University of Washington (1947-49) and at UC Berkeley (1949-76.) During Rossbach’s time at the University of Washington, Jack Lenor Larsen served as his teaching assistant for a weaving course. Years later Larsen invited Rossbach to provide furnishing fabric designs for his company, Jack Lenor Larsen, Inc.[4]
His creative work blended the influences of multiple cultures, applying contemporary experimental materials to historical methods of production. This is seen in his baskets, which utilized traditional basket weaving techniques, but were often composed of combinations of natural fibers, plastics, metal foils, and newspapers fragments that referenced components of popular culture. Other designs incorporated the visual languages of Indonesian ikat works and Ancient Peruvian textiles, and many of these works were created without using a traditional loom. At the basis of this eccentric design practice was an adherence to structure, both in the sense of the orientation of patterns within works and in the physical construction of woven forms.[5]
Besides creating physical works, Rossbach also published numerous articles and books related to craft techniques. Some of his books include Baskets as Textile Art (1973), The New Basketry (1976), and The Nature of Basketry (1986). Rossbach also served as a consultant to Craft Horizons, and frequently featured his articles related to contemporary topics in the textile and craft worlds. Today, his works are included in the collections of many different institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, and Cranbrook Art Museum.
1. Christa C. Mayer Thurman, “Textiles,” in Design in America: The Cranbrook Vision, 1925-1950 eds. Adele Westbrook and Anne Yarowsky (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1983), 205.
2. Jan Janiero, “Ed Rossbach: Influential Presence,” American Craft 50, no.2 (1990): 50.
3. Glenn Adamson, “Katherine Westphal, Fiber Art Pioneer, Dies at 99,” Hyperallergic, March 16, 2018, https://hyperallergic.com/433118/katherine-westphal-obituary-fiber-artist/.
4. Arline M. Fisch, “Oral History Interview with Jack Lenor Larsen, 2004 February 6-8,” Archives of American Art, May 5, 2005,
https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-jack-lenor-larsen-13092#transcript.
5. Janiero, “Ed Rossbach,” 50.
