In honor of Women’s History Month, the Museum of American Porcelain Art (MAPA) has mounted an exhibit recognizing seven women who made major contributions to the history of art porcelain. Five of them represent the Cybis studio; each has an Artist Profile on this site (bolded links). Museum Curator Carey Barone designed the lovely wall-spanning [...]
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 [...]
We now shift focus from the smallest (smallest limited editions) to the largest: This post identifies the top five sculptors who created the modern-day Cybis porcelains, in terms of how many sculptures they created for the studio (whether or not they were released by Cybis as retail items.) Retail editions that were sold as a [...]
For this 250th post added to the Cybis Archive, I decided to do something special: A re-creation (as much as is possible) of the 1970-1971 New Jersey State Museum exhibit Cybis in Retrospect. However, I have also expanded the original exhibit contents to include what I believe to be some of the best representations of [...]
Because the Cybis studio ultimately ran amok with their ‘Collections’ categories, I think it’s time to create a final and definitive overview of which sculptures – based on logic and reason – are connected to the various holidays and celebrations. I have based this solely on the appearance of the sculpture; the assignments have nothing [...]
Are you a book-lover? I’ve been one all my life, although my home library has had to be pared down to only 281 (as of today; I have a few more on pre-publication order) due to limited space, and I’ve no desire to join the digital-book brigade. For several reasons, e-books simply aren’t for me. [...]
As a former collector I can't help wincing when I see a Cybis sculpture selling on eBay for a fraction of what its retail price was when originally made. After all, that was a few decades ago and isn't art supposed to appreciate in value over time? The economy has changed, of course – we're [...]
Two of the most popular genre collections from the Cybis studio are the subject of a special exhibit at the Museum of American Porcelain Art in Ohio. The exhibit, titled Circuses & Carousels, is housed – most fittingly – in a room whose construction evokes the inside of a circus tent and/or the top canopy [...]
Having previously looked at the pairs, companions, and sets that the Cybis porcelain studio produced, it’s also interesting to see what I call their ‘two-fer’ and ‘trio’ pieces. These are sculptures that have more than one subject, both (or all) being of equal design weight/importance. There was also one sculpture that was composed of four [...]
The transformation from the artist's initial clay model to the finished retail product was something that collectors rarely had a chance to see and appreciate. Shown below are "before and after" photos of a baker's dozen Cybis designs, contrasting their initial (or early) stage with the sculpture that ultimately appeared on the retailer's shelf. Original [...]
THE CYBIS ARCHIVE 