I thought it fitting to devote my final Artist Profile to an artist who was a mainstay of the Cybis production process: Ginny MacCotter, who deserves credit for so much more than collectors ever knew. She was also one of the longest-serving and most devoted employees of the studio. She was born Anna Marie Magee [...]
As an in-house Cybis artist during the 1970s and 1980s, Jolan Palmai (pronounced yo-lahn pal-mee) was known for her outstanding ability as a 'finisher': The person who performs the critical step of ensuring that the fine detail on a porcelain sculpture is as clear and sharp as it can possibly be. Some finishers also acted [...]
It is with great sadness that I must report the passing of Cybis artist Susan Clark Eaton on May 22, 2025. She had been battling a recurrence of cancer since early this year. Although she already has an Artist Profile here in the Archive, this memorial page will delve deeper into her life and the [...]
This second part of his Artist Profile will delve into his work after his 1965 departure from the Cybis porcelain studio. The Ispanky Studios After leaving Cybis, Ispanky found an investor named George Utley and opened his own studio. A 1973 article in the New York Times related that He bought an old garage in [...]
Laszlo Ispanky was one of only five artists who were ever publicly identified by name in Cybis advertising literature as having created Cybis sculptures (the others were Marja Cybis, Marylin Chorlton, Lynn Klockner Brown, and Patricia Eakin); their names appear in the early pages of the studio’s 1964 and 1965 catalogs. However, Ispanky is the [...]
Although Tony Trezza was not a ‘Cybis artist’ in the sense of having created porcelain sculptures for the studio, he was definitely an artist in his own right and contributed in large part to the studio’s success. He also created a work of art that every employee of, and visitor to, the studio saw until [...]
The porcelains that freelance artist Gertrude Fass created for Cybis are only one part of her artistic legacy. Among her other endeavors were wonderful portrait busts in terracotta clay. This material was among the first that humans used to create ‘fired’ objects (as opposed to objects made from natural unfired clay) and the word itself [...]
Although unknown to the Cybis collecting community, Gertrude Fass created some of the studio’s most well-known portrait figures. Mrs. Fass was not only a sculptor, however; she was also a painter and a writer for print, radio, stage and screen. Born Gertrude Joan Kossoff in July 1909 to parents Philip Kossoff and Rachel Gindes, she [...]
This final part of my profile of George Ivers looks at some of his non-Cybis paintings on porcelain as well as his oil and watercolor paintings, dimensional sculptures, limited-edition prints, and greeting cards. Paintings on Porcelain These are very similar to (and in one case, extremely so!) the Limnettes that he created for Cybis during [...]
This second part of my profile of George Ivers focuses on the art that he produced either when he was a prisoner of war or afterward, and also his published memoir which goes into great detail about his wartime experiences. CONTENT ADVISORY: This post contains images and/or descriptions that may be distressing to some readers, [...]
THE CYBIS ARCHIVE 