Holding hands

Judy Cassab, a two-time recipient of the prestigious Archibald Prize, was renowned for her insightful and imaginative portraiture, adept at not only capturing the physical likeness of her subjects but also the essence of their era. In addition to depicting social figures, royalty, fellow artists, and loved ones, she was also highly regarded as a prolific draughtswoman and acclaimed landscape artist.

Born as Judit Kaszab in Vienna in 1920 to Jewish Hungarian parents, Cassab's artistic journey began at the age of 12. Despite starting formal studies at the Academy of Art in Prague in 1938, the onset of the Second World War interrupted her education, compelling her to flee the German occupation in 1939. Resuming her studies in Budapest in 1941 under the tutelage of Aurel Bernath and Lipot Hermann, she faced personal challenges as her husband, Jancsi Kampfner, was conscripted to labour camps the same year. Cassab and her husband later discovered the tragic fate of their immediate families in Nazi concentration camps. During the war, she avoided persecution by assuming the identity of her family's Catholic maid.

In 1951, Cassab and her husband immigrated to Sydney with their two sons, settling in Woollahra. Over the subsequent years, she established herself as a prominent portrait artist, infusing her work with an expressionist style influenced by European modernism.

Her career gained significant momentum in 1960 when she became only the second woman to win the Archibald Prize, awarded for her portrait of fellow artist Stanislaus Rapotec. She achieved another historic feat in 1967 by becoming the first woman to win the prize twice, this time for her portrait of Margo Lewers. The Art Gallery of NSW acquired both winning works, along with her portrait of Hal Missingham, the gallery's director at the time, which was a finalist in the 1970 prize. In total, Cassab showcased 41 works in the competition between 1952 and 1998. Additionally, she garnered several watercolour awards for her landscape pieces in the Wynne Prize competition from 1973 to 2003.

In 1959, encouraged by author and journalist Frank Clune, Cassab embarked on a journey to Alice Springs, marking the beginning of numerous visits to the central desert over the ensuing three decades.

Encountering the diverse shapes and forms of the landscape served as a catalyst for Judy Cassab to break free from the constraints of traditional figurative art. Swiss artist Paul Haefliger, who served as an art critic for publications like Art in Australia and the Sydney Morning Herald, played a pivotal role in encouraging her exploration of abstraction. He urged her to transcend the confines of being merely a fashionable portraitist, challenging her to delve into new territories:

"Detail of Ormiston 1959," created in her Sydney studio based on an oil study done on location, stands as one of her earliest ventures into depicting central Australia, representing a significant departure from her earlier focus on human subjects.

Despite her increasing fascination with abstraction in the desert landscape, Cassab remained committed to portrait painting. In 1984, she curated a portfolio of lithographs featuring prominent Australian cultural figures, including artists such as Donald Friend, Sidney Nolan, and Lloyd Rees.

Cassab received several notable honours during her lifetime, including being appointed a Commander of the British Empire in 1969 and an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1988. In 1980, she became only the second female trustee of the Art Gallery of NSW. In 2011, she was bestowed Hungary’s Gold Cross of Merit. That same year, she generously donated 400 of her artworks to smaller Australian galleries. She passed away in Sydney in 2015 at the age of 95.