Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Type:
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Katherine Westphal, 2002 September 3-7. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview of Katherine Westphal conducted 2002 September 3-7, by Carole Austin, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.
This interview took place in Berkeley, California. Westphal speaks of drawing every day; her rewarding education experience teaching at University of California, Davis' Applied Behavioral Sciences Department; her college encounters; the World Crafts Conference in Vienna in 1980; the significance of her travels in her artwork, including trips to Egypt, Hawaii, Wyoming, and Indonesia among others; her fascination with different types of art; the non-functional aspect of her artwork; the lack of necessity to sell artwork due to her job teaching, and the personal nature of her work not driven by a "craft market"; working for the textile industry; working with agent Frederick Karoly in New York; the considerable collection Daphne Farago has made of both Katherine's and her husband, Ed Rossbach's, artwork; her working environment; her storage condo; her most precious possession, her dogs; remodeling her Berkeley home and installing a glass elevator; the artist community at UC Davis and Fiberworks before it became a school; people she took workshops with at Fiberworks; a chronology of her work from the 1960s to present day; her and Ed's retirement in 1979 and their subsequent trip to Bali; her relationship with the home health care industry when Ed became sick; her development of baskets; her love of color; her artist in residency at Rhode Island School of Design in 1980, learning to work on the Jacquard loom; her very personal collection of postcards, which she created while on trips; her dog stories; several of the shows she has been in, including "Objects: USA" and "American Crafts at the Vatican"; the commission she completed for a hotel in Tokyo; and her copy machines and the various technological advances made during her career. Westphal also recalls Gyöngy Laky, Chere Lai Mah, Pat Hickman, Greg Lynn, Helen and Tio Giambruni, Jack Lenor Larsen and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Katherine Westphal (1919- ) is a fiber artist in Berkeley, California. Carole Austin is an interviewer, curator, and writer in Orinda, California.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information. Use of original audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Bob Stocksdale and Kay Sekimachi papers, circa 1900-2015. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool
Carole Austin. Carole Austin letter to Eli Leon, 1988 March 14. Museum of Craft and Folk Art records, 1970-2012. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Type:
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Ed Rossbach, 2002 August 27-29. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Fiber artists -- California -- Berkeley -- Interviews Search this
Nine decades : the Northern California craft movement, 1907 to present / presented by the San Francisco Craft & Folk Art Museum, Oliver Art Center/California College of Arts and Crafts, the California Crafts Museum ; with essays by Carole Austin, Dyana Curreri-Chadwick, Ted Cohen ; introduction by Kenneth Trapp
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Extent:
72 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Interviews
Date:
2002 August 27-29
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Ed Rossbach conducted 2002 August 27-29, by Carole Austin, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, in Berkeley, California.
Rossbach speaks of his early education and the influential teachers he had; his involvement with the All-Arts Club in high school; his family and the Depression; his beginnings with weaving; the rich and full experience of Cranbrook Academy of Art; his education at the University of Washington and professor Lea Miller; his use of the GI Bill; his relationship with dealers and galleries; his workplace at home; the isolation he felt as an artist; the importance of the craft movement and the very international feeling associated with it; the publications he worked on and completed, including, "Making Marionettes," (1938), "Baskets as Textile Art," (1973), "The New Basketry," (1976) and, "The Art of Paisley," (1980); his experience at Rhode Island School of Design and using the advanced power loom; Jim's Caning Shop in Berkeley, where he got a lot of his materials; the community of fiber artists that formed at Fiberworks; the "long" process of working with fiber; his dear friend Lillian Elliott; and the difficulty in preserving his artwork. Rossbach also recalls Maija Grotell, Jack Lenor Larsen, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Olga de Ameral, Pat Hickman, Ginger Laky, Chere Mah Marianne Strengell, Annie Albers, Pat Charley, Mark Balken, Daphne Farago, and others. Katherine Westphal, Rossbach's wife, concludes the interview with Ms. Austin discussing several of Ed's works in the catalog, "Ed Rossbach, 40 Years of Exploration and Innovation in Fiber Art," (1990), the accounts from Ms. Westphal add particular insight to the artwork Rossbach produced and how integral a figure Rossbach was to the field of fiber art.
Biographical / Historical:
Charles Edmund Rossbach (1914-2002) was a fiber artist from Berkeley, California. Carole Austin is a curator and writer from Orinda, California.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Restrictions:
For information on how to access this interview contact Reference Services.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
June Schwarcz papers, 1932-2014. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The papers of enameler June Schwarcz measure 7.6 linear feet and date from 1932 to 2014. The collection comprises biographical material including an interview, correspondence, gallery files, professional files documenting Schwarcz's activities outside of her work with galleries including files for her exhibition June Schwarcz: Forty Years/Forty Pieces, project and travel notebooks, personal business records, and printed materials. Also found are photographic materials including photographs, slides, and digital photographs of Schwarcz, works of art, exhibitions, events, and friends including Merry Renk, Kay Sekimachi, and Dominic di Mare.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of enameler June Schwarcz measure 7.6 linear feet and date from 1932 to 2014. The collection comprises biographical material including an interview, correspondence, gallery files, professional files documenting Schwarcz's activities outside of her work with galleries including files for her exhibition June Schwarcz: Forty Years/Forty Pieces, project and travel notebooks, personal business records, and printed materials. Also found are photographic materials including photographs, slides, and digital photographs of Schwarcz, works of art, exhibitions, events, and friends.
Biographical materials include datebooks, resumes, a transcript of an interview with Nancy Sarvis and "Visit with June" digital recordings, a photograph album and handmade book commemorating Schwarcz's 90th birthday, and a book of poems written by Schwarcz as a teenager. Correspondence is with Carole Austin, Dominic and Margaret di Mare, Bob Ebendorf, Deborah Krupenia, Forrest Merrill, Hal Nelson and Bernard Jazzar, Sarah Perkins, Brigitte Peterhans, Kay Sekimachi, Kiff Slemmons, Ramona Solberg, Paul Soldner, and others. Gallery files consist of correspondence, exhibition forms and related material, and a digital recording of an interview with Schwarz and images of works of art. Professional files document Schwarcz's activities outside of her work with galleries including files for her exhibition June Schwarcz: Forty Years/Forty Pieces, memberships, notebooks for projects and travel, and supply and procedure files. Also found are personal business records consisting of financial and legal records including several ledgers and record books with pricing and inventory information; printed materials that include catalogs and announcements for Schwarcz's exhibitions, clippings, and other material related to the craft community; and photographic materials containing photographs, slides, and born-digital material of Schwarcz, works of art, exhibitions, and snapshots of events and friends including Merry Renk, Kay Sekimachi, and Dominic di Mare.
Throughout the collection, but particularly in correspondence and photographic materials, researchers may find notes that were handwritten onto items by Schwarcz describing events depicted and relationships to people who appear in the collection. Schwarcz also developed an inventory numbering system for her artworks. Inventory numbers are referenced throughout the collection. Information on which works of art correspond to each inventory number can be found in the ledgers and record books in Series 5.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as seven series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1932-2012 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1956-2014 (2.0 linear feet; Boxes 1-3)
Series 3: Gallery Files, 1964-2012 (0.6 linear feet; Boxes 3-4)
Series 4: Professional Files, 1953-2013 (1.5 linear feet; Boxes 4-5)
Series 5: Personal Business Records, 1956-2013 (1.0 linear feet; Boxes 5-6)
Series 6: Printed Materials, 1956-2011 (1.0 linear feet; Boxes 6-7)
Series 7: Photographic Materials, circa 1935-2013 (1.0 linear feet; Boxes 7-9)
Biographical / Historical:
June Schwarcz (1918-2015), a long-time resident of Sausalito, California, was one of the preeminent contemporary enamelers in the United States.
Schwarcz was born in Denver, Colorado to Percy and Mary Morris. From 1939 to 1941, she studied industrial design at Pratt Institute. Soon after graduating she married Leroy Schwarcz, an engineer, and the couple moved to Baltimore, Maryland and had two children, Carl and Kim. The family lived in Brazil in the early 1950s before returning to Denver in 1954 for a brief period. While in Denver, Schwarcz learned about enameling through the books of Kenneth Bates. She acquired her first kiln and began creating enamels. Looking to nature for inspiration, she began enameling readymade copper vessels and soon began hammering her own bowls. Eventually she developed a signature method of drawing paper patterns and creating pieces from a lightweight, flexible copper foil that was amenable to folding and sewing like textiles. The work was then immersed into an electroforming bath for several days. The resulting enameled or oxidized vessels represented a unique development in enamel-on-metal technique, one that distinguished her among her fellow American craft artists.
Schwarcz died in 2015 in Sausalito, California.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview of June Schwarcz conducted January 21, 2001 by Arline M. Fisch, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, in Schwarcz's home and studio, Sausalito, California.
Provenance:
The June Schwarcz papers were donated in 2001 and 2013 by June Schwarcz.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Fiberworks, Center for the Textile Arts Search this
Extent:
1 Sound cassette
Container:
Box 4, Item 2
Type:
Archival materials
Audio [31027000857082]
Sound cassettes
Date:
undated
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Fiberworks, Center for the Textile Arts records, 1973-2005. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
American moderns on paper : masterworks from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art / edited by Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser ; with essays and entries by Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Erin Monroe, and Carol Troyen
