The liquidation of the Cybis studio’s backstock in 2019 brought to light a collection of female (lady head) busts made during the 1940s. These fell into two general categories: (a) papka and/or mixed media prototypes or one of a kind designs, and (b) busts that were cast from a basic head/neck mold and then variously [...]
One of the most enjoyable things about creating the Cybis Archive has been hearing from readers who have questions about Cybis or information to share. This is particularly true in regard to the 1940s and 1950s pieces, many of which were either never documented by Cybis or their original information has been lost. An especially [...]
One of the aims of this web site is to eventually catalogue all of the Cybis studio’s designs – a rather daunting prospect when one considers that very few records were kept during their first decade. After Marylin Chorlton took over the studio at the end of the 1950s, things became more organized but their [...]
Recently an Archive reader sent me photos of two charming little papka figures made by Marja Cybis in the early 1940s (1940-1942) while the studio was in the Steinway Mansion. Although best recognized for her papka angels – such as the Angelic Orchestra – these figures are in her whimsy/folk-art style. My first reaction [...]
Despite many of us being engaged in digging out from the latest snowstorm, Spring actually has arrived in some places which may bring to mind (for those old enough to remember it!) the classic Irving Berlin song "Easter Parade" popularized by the 1948 movie of the same name: In your Easter bonnet, with all the [...]
For the past several months I've been 'digging' into an unusual story, trying to separate fact from fiction. This particular investigative endeavor involves a set of Cybis' North American Indians sculptures. The story begins in the early 1970s, most likely 1972 or 1973. Several newspaper articles about the Cybis studio mentioned that a set of [...]
The coexistence of the Cordey and Cybis studio lines during the 1940s occasionally resulted in some interesting 'crossover' pieces, particularly those that apparantly never made it into retail production. One such piece is a bust of this bearded elderly man, perhaps a sage, signed MC indicating it was by Marja (a/k/a Maria) Cybis, wife of [...]
The items that were offered as 1940s retail pieces by Boleslaw Cybis' studio were almost all done in conventional porcelain rather than the clay/plaster 'papka' material seen in 1940s Part One. The retail designs were in many cases a mixture of traditional Old World European and artistic interpretation (albeit not as 'unusual' as much of [...]
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