Judy Cassab (15 August 1920 – 3 November 2015), born Judit Kaszab, was an Australian painter.
Judy Cassab was born in Vienna, on 15 August 1920 to Jewish Hungarian parents. She began painting at twelve years old and began studying at the Academy of Art in Prague in 1938 but was forced to flee the German occupation in 1939. Cassab worked in a factory under an assumed name and put her artistic skills to use after hours forging papers and passports.
Her husband, Jancsi Kampfner, was put in a forced labour camp by the Nazis in World War II, and returned to Hungary in 1944.
Cassab, her husband and two sons emigrated to Australia in 1951 and settled in Sydney. Cassab became an Australian citizen in 1957.
Cassab was the first woman to win the Archibald Prize twice:
1960 for a portrait of Stan Rapotec
1967 for a portrait of Margo Lewers.
She was commissioned by the Australian Mathematics Trust to paint a portrait of mathematician Bernhard Neumann.
She held more than fifty solo exhibitions in Australia, as well as others in Paris and London.
After Cassab's work was acquired by the National Gallery, she was interviewed by James Gleeson about how she captured people's character in their portraits. This interview later formed part of the James Gleeson Oral History Collection.
1953 - Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
1953 - Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
1959 - Newcastle City Art Gallery
1959 - Crane Kalman Gallery, London
1963 - Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
1961 - Crane Kalman Gallery, London
1962 - Argus Gallery, Melbourne
1963 - Rudy Koman Gallery, Sydney