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Marylin Kozuch 1922-1977
Born in New York in 1922, Marylin was a 17 year old aspiring art student when she met Boleslaw Cybis. Her parents, immigrants from Poland, spoke Polish in the home. This was a great advantage for Marylin. The Cybises arrived in 1939 to paint murals in the Polish Pavilion for the World's Fair. Speaking minimal English, the Cybises were in need of a translator. They met Marylin and hired her to work with them on the World's Fair project. Little did she know, this "first opportunity" would set her future course for life.
Marylin would continue with the Cybises, working in their first studio making cold cast plaster figures in New York. During this time she advanced her artistic skills learning the old world techniques from Maria and Boleslaw. When Boleslaw relocated the studio from the New York City borough of Queens, on Long Island to Trenton, NJ, Marylin made the move as well.
Marylin working in the studio on Long Island, between 1940-1942
After moving to New Jersey, Marylin became an integral part of the studio. She was a key employee through the Cordey years and formed an extremely close, personal relationship with Maria and Boleslaw. As an accomplished artist, she created the the first Limited Edition sculpture offered by Cybis. This alone was a ground breaking accomplishment as Cybis was the first to offer Limited Edition porcelain art sculptures. Other Trenton studios would follow suit in time, but Marylin's Turtle Doves fueled the collecting of porcelain art in the United States.
Marylin showing Turtle Doves of Peace
Marylin sculpting Limited Edition Dahlia
Marylin would go on to create several other impressive sculptures, but once the Cybises were gone and she was the studio's owner, her new role required her focus to shift. She now had a business to run, products to promote and staff to manage. Marylin chose to assume the title of Artistic Director as she began to plan the next phase of the studio's legacy. Appointing Joe Chorlton, long term marketing representative (and her new husband), as the company's CEO, she was free to focus on the development of new sculptures, training artists and promoting the studio.
The 1960's were an exciting time as she oversaw the studio's redesign of the product line, the representation of Cybis in the 1964 World's Fair and the marketing task of planning and promoting the studio's products for the upcoming 200th Anniversary of the nation's Bicentennial.
Marylin successfully guided the studio through difficult transitions setting it on a stable course and positioning it as the premier porcelain art studio in the world. Marylin left us too soon. She passed away in 1977 but not without having made a major impact on the studio, the porcelain arts and collectors worldwide.