This conceptual artist has a rock star collection you won’t believe

Rob Joyce
Nov 3, 2023
2 min read

Artist Cynthia Albritton, a.k.a. Cynthia “Plaster Caster” passed away last year at the age of 74.

Cynthia is a part of rock culture due to her unique and on-going art project she started in the late 1960s. Albritton was an art student in college who needed a project to submit for her final assignment of the semester—her art professor assigned the final project to include plaster casts. And after what seemed like weeks of deliberation over what to do… an idea came up. Literally.

You see, Cynthia had a unique idea, which is now a unique collection, to make plaster casts of rock and roll musicians’ penises.

What started out as the visual artist’s fascination with rock stars (she often referred to herself as a “super groupie”) and their “packages,” would later expand to include filmmakers, actors, and writers, eventually amassing a collection of over seventy plaster phalluses.

As silly as “penis-casting” may sound, it was ground-breaking in conceptual art and critics applauded her work. Cynthia was described by those who knew her as “smart, funny, bubbly, and ebullient.” And although her artwork turned quite a few heads, she was a serious artist.

Back in 1968, one of her first famous casts, was that of guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Once word spread about Albritton’s work and collection, rock stars even sought her out to be included in her work. Although she did say there was stiff competition to be considered for the installation, she was quite open minded, even later including some women in the project.

Frank Zappa didn’t participate, but he did support her work. Both financially and personally. After learning of her work (Frank mentioned her in a Rolling Stone interview back in 1969), he helped to move Cynthia’s studio to L.A. And after her art studio was broken into, he provided legal services and a vault to protect her artwork from being pillaged.

Singer and lyricist Sally Timms told Rolling Stone in April 2022: “She chose a very unusual path. And then as a person, she was just such a sweet, gentle person. You imagine you’re gonna meet this very raunchy woman who’s super sexual and pushy and everything else and she would just emerge as this socially shy, gentle, funny woman who was just dedicated to try and cast rock stars’ penises, but the image of her and what you think she would be is very different to what she was. She’s a total one off, and there won’t be any more Cynthias.”