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Cassab, Judy (1920-)

Persistent Identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-624771

Biographies

Australian Women's Register

Judy Cassab is one of Australia's best known portrait painters and the winner of many prestigious art awards including the coveted Archibald Prize. Austrian-born and of Hungarian parents, Judy Cassab emigrated to Australia in 1951 with her husband and two children. In Australia, she quickly gained a reputation for her distinctive expressionist technique and portrait abilities. In 1969 Judy was appointed as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her service to the visual arts. In 1988 she was also appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). Following the publication of her diaries in 1995, Sydney University conferred upon her the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (Hon. PhD). In 1996 she also won the Nita B. Kibble Award for women writers.

When she was 12, Judy Cassab began two practices that would become lifelong rituals; she started painting and began to keep a diary. Later in life, in a retrospective moment, the internationally renowned portrait painter and published diarist explained how painting and writing came to feature so prominently in her life:

'I had always thought that I expressed my thoughts with a brush. I never knew that I could write. Writing, I thought, is just a habit like washing my teeth; I could not go to bed without doing it. I do not feel anxious about my paintings. I can always paint others. It is different with the diaries. I lost the first 11 years of my diaries when they were left in my childhood home in Beregszász and perished during the war. I lost everything else I had there. But objects, even beautiful objects are replaceable. One can never recapture a 12-year-old self.'

Judy Cassab was born Judy Kaszab in Vienna, Austria, in 1920, to Hungarian parents. In 1929 the Kaszab family returned to Hungary where her parents separated and Judy spent the rest of her childhood years living in her grandmother's house.

In 1939, only after making him promise that their marriage would not stand in the way of her being a painter, Judy married Jancsi Kampfner. Jancsi not only kept the promise throughout their long marriage but was sometimes the one who had to creatively enforce it when Judy herself was willing to put her travelling aspirations aside if it meant being able to stay with her husband and young children. Judy recalls that during one of her crying fits about a proposed overseas trip, Jancsi who was staying behind with the children, finally exclaimed 'we are only half of your life. Stop being such a coward.'

The first years of their marriage were plagued with the horrors of World War II. Jancsi was sent to a forced slave labour camp and was one of the few to survive. It was Jancsi who, nonetheless, encouraged Judy, if the opportunity were to arise, to flee to Budapest to study painting. She did. Between 1939 and 1949 she studied art in Prague and the Budapest Academy and although her studies were interrupted by Nazi occupation, she managed to survive by going underground and hiding her Jewish identity. It was the first time in my life,' she says, 'that I was not a girl, not a woman, not a human being, but a Jew'. After many years of hardship and loss, in 1951, already an accomplished painter, Judy, Jancsi and their two Budapest-born sons, were able to emigrate to Australia.

Since her first solo exhibition at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney in 1953, Judy Cassab has held well over fifty solo exhibitions throughout Australia as well as in Paris and London. In 1969, as the only woman to have won the Archibald Prize twice and having collected another 10 major art prizes, Judy Cassab was appointed as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her service to the visual arts. In 1988 she also appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).

View the full record at Australian Women's Register

Resources

Selected resources (28)

Australian Women's Register

  1. Portrait of a Life: JUDY CASSAB (1920)
    Baer, Daniel
    [1999]
  2. Diaries
    Cassab, Judy
    [1996]
    Published: National Library of Australia
  3. Judy Cassab: diaries
    Cassab, Judy
    [1995]
    Published: Alfred A. Knopf, Sydney
  4. Australian Portraits: ten original lithographs
    Cassab, Judy
    [1984]
    Published: Beagle Press, Sydney
  5. Judy Cassab: a selection from the gallery
    Greythorn Galleries Fine Art
  6. Who's who of Australian women
    Lofthouse, Andrea
    [1982]
    Published: Methuen Australia, North Ryde (NSW)
  7. Monash Biographical Dictionary of 20th Century Australia
    Arnold, John and Morris, Deirdre
    [1994]
    Published: Reed Reference Publishing, Port Melbourne (Vic.)
  8. A dictionary of women artists of Australia
    Germaine, Max
    [c.1991]
    Published: Tortola, BVI : Craftsman House BVI, Roseville East, NSW
  9. Notable Australians: the pictorial who’s who
    Hamlyn, Paul
    [1978]
    Published: Sydney
  10. Judy Cassab
    Eva Breuer Art Dealer
  11. Judy Cassab
    BMGART
  12. Who's who in Australia 2002
    Herd, Margaret
    [2002]
    Published: Crown Content, Melbourne
  13. Judy Cassab
    Art Galleries Schubert
  14. Faith, Hope and Charity Australian Women and Imperial Honours: 1901-1989
    Australian Women's Archives Project
    [2003]
    Published: Australian Women's Archives Project
  15. Judy Cassab: selected solo shows
    The Doug Moran National Portrait Prize
  16. Contemporary Australians 1995/96
    [1995]
    Published: Reed Reference Australia, Port Melbourne, Victoria
  17. Judy Cassab, artists and friends
    Klepac, Lou
    [1988]
    Published: Beagle Press, Sydney
  18. Judy Cassab, places, faces and fantasies
    Lynn, Elwyn
    [1984]
    Published: Macmillan, South Melbourne, Vic.
  19. The encyclopaedia of Australian art
    McCulloch, Alan
    [1994]
    Published: Allen & Unwin, NSW
  20. The International Who’s Who of Women: A biographical reference guide to the most eminent and distinguished women in the world today
    [1992]
    Published: Europa Publications Ltd, London
  21. Records of the Rudy Komon Art Gallery
    National Library of Australia
    [2001]
    Published: National Library of Australia
  22. Artists Represented [Judy Cassab]
    Wagner Art Gallery
  23. Cassab, Judy
    Papers
    1 envelope
    Australian Jewish Historical Society Archives
    1082
  24. Papers of Judy Cassab
    [1944 - 1999]
    8 boxes & 12 folio boxes. Copies of 9 books of newspaper cuttings, catalogues of exhibitions, photographs, a folder of miscellaneous cuttings and photographs, and personal diaries, 1944-1987.
    0.16 m
    National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection
    MS1541
  25. Interview with Judy Cassab
    Interviewer, Barbara Blackman, 1984.
    National Library of Australia Oral History Collection
    ORAL TRC 1704
  26. Conversation with Judy Cassab
    Interviewer, Hazel de Berg, 1962.
    National Library of Australia Oral History Collection
    ORAL DeB 34.
  27. Judy Cassab
    Full file
    Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian National University
  28. Rudy Komon Art Gallery [Records]
    [1959 - 1984]
    The records have been retained in their original order in the following series: 1. Correspondence arranged by artists, 1961-84: the series contains letters from artists whose works were exhibited in the Rudy Komon Gallery, as well as young artists trying to publicize their works and letters from directors of various galleries. Correspondents include: George Baldessin, Sir William Dargie, Tom Silver, David Thomas, Roy Dalgarno, Jack Lynn and John Siddeley. 2. Correspondence arranged by artists, galleries and companies, 1963-84: The series comprises correspondence with artists, commercial and public galleries, and business firms, mainly concerning the sale of art works or exhibitions. The correspondents include: Tate Adams, Bruce Arthur, Jim Ede, Tony Underhill, Leonard French, Arthur Boyd, Judy Cassab, Kym Bonython, Sidney Nolan, Fred Williams, John Olsen, Peter Powditch, Ewa Pachuka, Alan McCulloch, Norma Redpath and Jon Molvig. 3. Photographs (General): photographs and negatives of art works and artists. 4. Photographs (Personal): photographs of Rudy Komon's interests in wine tasting. 5. Exhibition catalogues, c. 1965-83. 6. Scrapbooks, 1959-84: containing reviews and catalogues. 7. Index cards: index to paintings and other art works. 8. Miscellaneous papers.
    6.7 m
    National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection
    MS 8327

Resources About Judy Cassab (50)

  1. Judy Cassab diaries
    Cassab, Judy, 1920-
    [Book, Audio book : 1995-1996]
  2. Judy Cassab : places, faces and fantasies / Elwyn Lynn
    Lynn, Elwyn, 1917-1997
    [Book : 1984]
  3. Judy Cassab : a portrait / Brenda Niall
    Niall, Brenda, 1930-
    [Book : 2005-2006]
  4. Judy Cassab : artists and friends / Lou Klepac
    Klepac, Lou
    [Book : 1988]
  5. Judy Cassab : portraits of artists and friends / Lou Klepac
    Klepac, Lou
    [Book : 1998]
  6. Papers of Judy Cassab
    Cassab, Judy, 1920-
    [Unpublished : 1944-1999]
    Available online
  7. Judy Cassab with Caroline Jones
    Cassab, Judy, 1920-
    [Sound : 1990]
  8. [Judy Cassab : Australasian Art & Artists File]
    Cassab, Judy, 1920-
    [Book ]
  9. Australian portraits : ten original lithographs / by Judy Cassab
    Cassab, Judy, 1920-
    [Book : 1984]
  10. Judy Cassab : landscapes 1978-1998
    Cassab, Judy, 1920-
    [Book : 1998]

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  1. Website: Art Galleries Schubert
    www.art-galleries-schubert.com.au
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  1. Judy Cassab diaries
    Cassab, Judy, 1920-
    [Book, Audio book : 1995-1996]
  2. Judy Cassab : a portrait / Brenda Niall
    Niall, Brenda, 1930-
    [Book : 2005-2006]
  3. Judy Cassab : places, faces and fantasies / Elwyn Lynn
    Lynn, Elwyn, 1917-1997
    [Book : 1984]
  1. Judy Cassab diaries
    Cassab, Judy, 1920-
    [Book, Audio book : 1995-1996]
  2. Judy Cassab with Caroline Jones
    Cassab, Judy, 1920-
    [Sound : 1990]
  3. Judy Cassab interviewed by Barbara Blackman
    Cassab, Judy, 1920-
    [Sound : 1984]
  1. Still life with self portrait portr...
    Cassab, Judy, 1...
    [Art work : 1995]
  2. [Portrait of Peter Sculthorpe] Judy...
    Cassab, Judy, 1...
    [Art work : 1988]
  3. Scetch [i.e. Sketch] for Peter Scul...
    Cassab, Judy, 1...
    [Art work : 1988]