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 [...]
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. [...]
One of the fascinating aspects of chronicling Cybis Porcelain sculptures is how often a piece that appears simple and straightforward can turn out to have a complicated ‘life story.’ Take, for example, the one known to most collectors as First Flight. There are four known versions of this design – if versions is indeed the [...]
Because my original 1950s-madonnas post has become so extensive, I decided to spin off the busts and torso (non-full-figure) pieces into this separate post. The same comments apply for these as for the full figures, including that: almost all of the 1950s religious pieces were cast by Cybis from molds that they purchased from companies [...]
No, I’m really not pairing the chorus of Eminem’s The Real Slim Shady with a Cybis sculpture... even though there certainly were sufficient iterations to warrant it! Although the studio was never shy about borrowing pieces from one sculpture to help create another (see Body Snatching), this particular madonna bust not only kept popping up [...]
No retrospective of Cybis porcelain could be complete without paying homage to the woman who created the modern studio's Golden Age. This was Marylin Chorlton, the guiding light who was lost far too soon. It's indisputable that without Marylin's direction there would not have been a Cybis Studio as the world came to know it. [...]
During the 'golden age' of the Cybis studio's production (1960s and 1970s) their pieces were regularly chosen to be official Gifts of State from our country to foreign dignitaries. Presidents Nixon and Ford were particularly fond of doing so, in fact, but in reality that process doesn't begin in the Oval Office. So where does [...]
Given the Cybis Studio's roots in Eastern Europe it isn't surprising that they produced several iterations of the famed 16th century statue long associated with the city of Prague, Czech Republic (although it is said to have originally been made in Spain.) The original statue dating from the mid 1500s is 19" high, carved from [...]
In addition to their various child/baby busts, nursery rhyme and fairytale characters, the Cybis studio produced many sculptures within their general category called 'Children to Cherish.' They were all non-limited editions. The pieces from the 1950s and 1960s predated this category concept which was introduced the following decade. On the 1963 price list, the only [...]
The Cybis studio has a long history of bird studies, with a few dating as far back as the 1940s; those are recognizably different from those produced during the 1950s and beyond. The Cybis birds produced during the 1950s show a gradually evolving style mix which coalesced into a permanent and definitive look beginning in [...]
THE CYBIS ARCHIVE 