Widely considered one of this country’s foremost textile artists, Ed Rossbach innovatively explored materials and worked with ancient techniques in experimental ways. He grew up in Seattle. Though a shy child, he loved the theater, wrote plays, and performed on stage. With his family, he also created and performed puppet shows for church and school groups. In college, he studied art and art education at the University of Washington in Seattle and earned his master’s degree at Columbia University in New York. Then he returned to Washington to teach seventh grade. When America entered the Second World War, Rossbach enlisted in the army and was stationed in the Aleutian Islands. While there, he was deeply affected by the landscape, native culture, and crafts. After the war, he continued art studies at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where he was surrounded by leading artists and architects.

After coming to UC Berkeley to teach weaving in 1950, Rossbach drew inspiration from the indigenous basketry techniques he discovered in works at UC’s Lowie Museum of Anthropology. Prof. Rossbach inspired students with his ability to see the world with renewed values, a fresh vision that was both serious and playful. His comprehensive knowledge of the textile arts gave him a broad palette of expressive techniques in often unconventional materials like newspaper; vinyl and masking tapes; drop cloths; and polyethylene film tubing. He used images from pop culture, including Mickey Mouse, John Travolta, and U.S. astronauts, as well as domestic images of his wife, fiber artist Katherine Westphal and their dogs in works employing weaving, knotting, plaiting, brocade, ikat screen printing, drawing, and painting.

Rossbach and Westphal transformed their home into a work of art. They covered walls with drawings of life-size images, including Mayan figures painted in silver, blue, and salmon beside a Haitian elephant dancing in tennis shoes. Their collection of carved folk-art masks from an eclectic mixture of cultures and styles vividly showed their open-minded approach to both life and art. The couple’s extensive travels focused on textiles. They returned home each time with endless images to share with students and colleagues.

Rossbach’s work is included in various museum collections, including The Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago. His publications include: Baskets as Textile Art (1973), The New Basketry (1976), The Art of Paisley (1980), and Making Marionettes (1938).