Cynthia Albritton, aka Cynthia Gypsum CalfThe legendary artist and “recovery group” famous for the plaster casts that she took to many great musicians erecting body parts and other organs of the body, has died after a long struggle with illness, her delegate confirms that diverse. She was 74 years old.
Her collection included Jimi Hendrix, MC5’s Wayne Kramer, Buzzcocks’ Pete Shelley, and Jello Biafra from Dead Kennedys as well as female boobs from the likes of Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab, Sally Timms of the Mekons, Peaches, Karen O of the Yeah yeah yeah and many more from others. She later expanded her subjects to include filmmakers and other artists and eventually assembled a collection of 50 plaster bars.
Born on May 24, 1947, Cynthia Albritton began her stucco casting career in rock music while living in Chicago in 1968. After meeting Frank Zappa, who found her artistic concept funny and imaginative (though not involved), Albritton found it something of a cult. shepherd. He moved her to Los Angeles – a goldmine for her art streak – where she found several assistants willing to help prepare subjects for her work.
In 1971, after her apartment was robbed, Zappa and Albritton decided to keep the cast for a future show and entrust them to Zappa’s business and legal partner, Herb Cohen. However, the artists refused to participate in the show, and she did not make any cast between 1971 and 1980. In a surreal situation, she found herself forced to go to court in 1993 for the return of the 25 teams she had left with Cohen; In the end she got all but three back.
In 2000, Albritton finally held her first Actors Show in New York, and expanded her repertoire to include women’s breasts.
Her career was immortalized in the 2001 documentary Plaster Caster, and she also starred in the 2005 BBC documentary My Penis and I, directed by filmmaker Lawrence Barclau about his concern about the size of his penis.
She has been lauded on several rock songs—including Kiss “Plaster Caster”—and a televised conversation between her and the Frank Zappa-sponsored group GTOs was included on their 1969 album, Permanent Damage.
In an intriguing career twist, in 2010, Albritton ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Chicago—of course, on the “Hard Party” ticket.
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