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Katherine Westphal: Textiles KATHERINE WESTPHAL: TEXTILES QUILTED TEXTILES AS WALL HANGINGS The quilted wall hangings of Katherine Westphal are unique examples of the unexpected possibilities of invention to be found in traditional techniques. Goethe observed that the air shapes the bird, that the forms of nature assume the contours demanded by thei r environment. For this artist, the materials and elements of design provide the environment, the demand, that shapes form. Katherine Westphal is keenly sensitive to the characteristics of her medium. To her they are resources, not limitations. Her work is the result of a continuous, impressive and exhilarating dialogue between ideas and materials. Clearly, the sensuous elements of color, shape, texture, and pattern are dominant features of the wall hangings. Such bold and felicitous relationships are seldom encountered. In some of the works the basic organization seems classical, with near symmetry and regular division of the space. Other works seem almost aleatory, with fantastic arabesques, plateresque convolutions, swift cha nges of color and pattern and imbricated textures. In Martin's Flock, for example, the invention with color and pattern is laid over a simple structural division of the space, like contrapuntal musical variations over an ostinato base. Several textile techniques are combined in these works - applique, stitchery, batik, tapestry, and quilting. The forms are built up, section by section, from disparate elements. In many cases small fragments of larger motifs have been assembled to make a new order. This process is reminiscent of ancient and primitive stitchery where large units were frequently composed of sma ller pieces. At the same time, the almost random collation of bits from other patterns gives a se nse of textural richness and a suggestion of previous relationships cut apa rt and recombined in scacchic order. Tactile changes grow out of formal need. Tapestry faces contrast with areas of appliqued batik pattern and shredded fringes in the Mysterious Caches . Embroidered linear and both the University of Wyoming and the University textural elements embellish and unify the color and of Washington and is currently on the staff of the pattern in the mala-like Banners of the White House. University of California, Davis . Besides her teaching These mixtures perm it great latitude w ith color and duties, she works with industry in the designing design, both of w hich are used to intensify the of textiles. She is married to Ed Rossbach, a teacher character of the subject matter. and weaver. Many of the wal l han gings are based on subjects or forms derived from ancient cultures. However, they are in no sense pastiches. Th ey are vital extensions of concepts unexhausted and only partially explored, sti ll relevant to our time. In a curious way, the shroud-like Mysterious Cache from Tomb 55 and the Tomb Figures combine funeral ritual and provocative sensuality. We are aware of their Egyptian and Coptic antecedents, but we recognize their contemporary significance. The monkey themes of Peruvian Monkeys and Equivoca l Cube derive from Peruvian textile design with overtones of Bosch. Martin 's Flock has a Gothic quality supported by the red ground, the pattern of sheep, and the tondo which se rves as a pasture. In each work the subject matter verges on romantic irony, whether it be witty, lyrical, grave, or mordant. It contains echoes of the windows of Chartres and ev idences of our contemporary urban environment. It ranges from bedizened maidens and creatures th at might possibly be out of medieval bestiaries to the White House su rrounded by flags and banners and a storybook rabbit at home in a garden patch. This gre at variety of subjects is at once poetically direct and critically aware, and is the product of visual literacy and adventurous forays into traditional forms. Spencer Moseley Katherine Westphal emplo ys various textile technics Jan uary 19 to March 24, 1968 such as weaving, embroidery and batiking in the creation of her work. She studied at Los Angeles City MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY CRAFTS College and received advanced degrees at the OF THE AMERICAN CRAFTSMEN 'S COUNCIL University of California, Berkeley. She has taught at 29 WEST 53 STREET, NEW YORK 10019 ED ROSSBACH: TEXTILES The wall hangings in the current exhibition are constructed with basketry and mesh techniques­ braiding, twining, netting, and knotting. Such techniques employ short lengths of weaving material, as contrasted to the long, continuous warps and wefts usually used in loom procedures. It is likely that these methods were initially developed by early weavers to make use of available materials when spinning techniques were primitive or non-existent. Many materials, such as grasses, reeds, wicker and os ier, or plant fibers such as raffia - made from the fiber of the Madagascar palm frond - are short and ca nnot be spun. It is natural, then, that the knotting, twining and joining techniques originally based on these materials require the use of short, discon­ tinuous lengths of material for convenience of handling. The short lengths, in turn, necessitate frequent joinings, permitting spontaneous changes o f color, texture and direction. And, since the warp and weft elements are disjunct, the technique in adjacent segments can be easily and abruptly changed to make astonishing variations in surface and design. Rossbach has an affinity for form that grows section by section, the ultimate contours of which are determined by the character of the internal structure. Predefined limitations of edge are unnecessary impediments to the logical fulfillment of such free growth. Many of the works in this exhibit have fragmentary or random boundaries dictated by the part-to-part relationships within. If his work does arrive at a rectilinear edge, it is because this seeems the proper conclusion of inward growth. The non-loom technique are ideal for his unfettered search for organic form. The titles given to these works reflect the extensive, cross-cultural heritage of the artist and the allusions to the past inherent in the weaving process. But even if they were not named, we would recognize the character of half-remembered ritual woven into them. They are urtexts of feeling. Spencer Moseley Ed Rossbach is a weaver and a teacher of painting and textile design. He studied at the University of Washington, Columbia University and Cranbrook Academy. He has taught at the University of Washington in Seattle and is currently on the staff of the University of California, Berkeley. His work with silk, linen and woolen woven fabrics reflects his training as a painter. January 19 to March 24, 1968 MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY CRAFTS OF THE AMERICAN CRAFTSMEN'S COUNCIL 29 WEST 53 STREET, NEW YORK 10019 NON-LOOM TEXTILES The loom was developed to speed the weaving process, and, concomitantly, to reduce the cost of fabric. With each innovation and improvement to conserve time and labor, the warp and weft became increasingly regimented. Indeed, our word order derives from the Latin ordiri - to set in order the threads in the weft. The industrial revolution with its mechanized looms depended in large part upon a single kind o f order - a mindless repetition that, of necessity, ignored the inventive possibilities inherent in th e materials. But there is another sort of order which derives from sentience, which delights in random relationships, intellectual surprises, innovation, and emotive construction. It is this order that we find in the textiles of Ed Rossbach . The direction of his work has consistently been to search out the expressive elements available to the weaver. To develop these, he has explored many seldom-used and even arcane techniques: painted-warp, double cloth, and single and double ikat, all of which extend the possibilities of the loom, allowing the weaver greater choice and improvisation, while yet relying upon the perpendicular interlacing of warp and weft. His most recent work with non-loom textiles seems to be a logical development of this search for independence from imposed mechanical rigidity. But this is an a posteriori judgment that conceals the radical character of the innovation. It is difficult to think of a weaver without a loom. Yet, by abandoning the loom in these textiles, Rossbach has re-introduced us to a direct encounter with materials and techniques that is unincumbered with recent tradition. Such freedom lies near chaos. But these non-loom constructions achieve an order that proceeds out of the necessities of structure and feeling, an order that is a stranger to the loom, an order that denies utility. .
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