Plains,+The

Date: 1990
 * [[image:http://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=http://americanart.si.edu/images/2002/2002.8.11_2a.jpg&max=460 width="293" height="364" link="@http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=71427"]] || Title: **The Plains**

Artist: **Ed Rossbach** Born: Chicago, Illinois 1914 Died: Berkeley, California 2002

Medium: ash, bark and cloth Dimensions: 14 3/4 x 11 5/8 x 8 1/4 in. (37.5 x 29.5 x 21.0 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Eleanor T. and Samuel J. Rosenfeld

Accession: 2002.8.11 || In the mid-1980s, Ed Rossbach began to create baskets made out of folded and stapled bark, often decorated with drawings or commercially produced illustrations applied with a heat-transfer process. //The Plains// is one of the most intensely colored examples from this group, which offer historical and pop-cultural images of Plains animals and Native Americans. Rossbach and his wife, Katherine Westphal, collected these as they traveled across the country, researching different textile traditions.
 * Luce Center Label: **

Family history, influential teachers, experimentation, and travel informed Rossbach’s artistic creations. Traditionally women produced fiber arts, but Rossbach enjoyed watching and reading to his mother and sisters as they quilted. Later his sister, Ruth, purchased a loom. The loom inspired Rossbach to take a weaving class at Broadway Night School in Washington state.
 * About the Artist: **

Rossbach is best known for his use of fibers to create baskets, which critics consider to be “among his most spontaneous and personal work” (Ed Rossbach, 37-45). He has written several books on basketry and weaving techniques through the centuries.

Sources: //Ed Rossbach: 40 Years of Exploration and Innovation in Fiber Art//. Edited by Ann Pollard Rowe and Rebecca A. T. Stevens (Washington, D.C.: The Textile Museum, 1990).

//Skilled Work: American Craft in the Renwick Gallery// (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art with Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998).

Rossbach, Ed. //Baskets as Textile Art// (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1973).


 * Resources: **

Artist Biography SAAM Collections Page  **About the Artist **
 * Links: **

Family history, influential teachers, experimentation, and travel informed Rossbach’s artistic creations. Traditionally women produced fiber arts, but Rossbach enjoyed watching and reading to his mother and sisters as they quilted. Later his sister, Ruth, purchased a loom. The loom inspired Rossbach to take a weaving class at Broadway Night School in Washington state. Rossbach is best known for his use of fibers to create baskets, which critics consider to be “among his most spontaneous and personal work” (//Ed Rossbach//, 37-45). He has written several books on basketry and weaving techniques through the centuries. //Ed Rossbach: 40 Years of Exploration and Innovation in Fiber Art //. Edited by Ann Pollard Rowe and Rebecca A. T. Stevens (Washington, D.C.: The Textile Museum, 1990). //Skilled Work: American Craft in the Renwick Gallery //(Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art with Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998).
 * Sources: **