Reflection
Object numberM2019/056
TitleReflection
Creator Judy Cassab (artist)
DescriptionJudy Cassab, 'Reflection', depicting a nude female figure reflecting upon a Khmer sculptural head on wooden plinth, placed on a Hungarian-style table cloth, oil on canvas, signed bottom left, date unclear, possibly '98'. The model is Marina Finlay.
Cassab is well-known for her talents as a portraitist and significant body of landscapes. She won the Archibald twice, in 1961 and 1963 and has been awarded numerous other awards and honours.
Born Judit Kaszab in 1920 in Vienna, Austria, she was raised by her mother and grandmother in Beregszasz, Hungary, where she studied art. Judy painted her first portrait at the age of 12 and penned diaries which were later published as a book. She studied art in Prague and at the Budapest Academy. Her studies were disrupted by Nazi occupation and her subsequent time in hiding. ‘…it was the first time in my life that I was not a girl, not a woman, not a human being, but a Jew'. Most of her immediate family was murdered in the Holocaust. In 1951, she immigrated to Australia with her husband and two young sons. Her first solo exhibition was held at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney in 1953.
Early portrait work expanded into still life and landscapes, with the latter informed largely by her time spent in Alice Springs. In this work the Hungarian motif tablecloth references her homeland; perhaps an item brought from one life to the next. This still life painting, similar to her many landscapes and in contrast to the portraiture of others, might be considered as depiction of Judy's inner landscape. She discusses the connection between art and this inner exploration in her diary, noting: 'it’s an outpouring of expression-not of the landscape as depicted in other landscape paintings-but an inner landscape, merging with the antiquity, and myth and mystery of this land. It looks like no one else but me and is the culmination…of decades of searching, and I am home now'.
Cassab died in November 2015, leaving behind a significant body of work, exhibited both in Australia and internationally. As a migrant and as a woman, she overcame remarkable obstacles to define her place and purpose as an artist: ‘My art work is so intrinsically interwoven in the fabric of my being that I cannot conceive of any sort of existence without it. I pray that I never have to.’
Cassab is well-known for her talents as a portraitist and significant body of landscapes. She won the Archibald twice, in 1961 and 1963 and has been awarded numerous other awards and honours.
Born Judit Kaszab in 1920 in Vienna, Austria, she was raised by her mother and grandmother in Beregszasz, Hungary, where she studied art. Judy painted her first portrait at the age of 12 and penned diaries which were later published as a book. She studied art in Prague and at the Budapest Academy. Her studies were disrupted by Nazi occupation and her subsequent time in hiding. ‘…it was the first time in my life that I was not a girl, not a woman, not a human being, but a Jew'. Most of her immediate family was murdered in the Holocaust. In 1951, she immigrated to Australia with her husband and two young sons. Her first solo exhibition was held at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney in 1953.
Early portrait work expanded into still life and landscapes, with the latter informed largely by her time spent in Alice Springs. In this work the Hungarian motif tablecloth references her homeland; perhaps an item brought from one life to the next. This still life painting, similar to her many landscapes and in contrast to the portraiture of others, might be considered as depiction of Judy's inner landscape. She discusses the connection between art and this inner exploration in her diary, noting: 'it’s an outpouring of expression-not of the landscape as depicted in other landscape paintings-but an inner landscape, merging with the antiquity, and myth and mystery of this land. It looks like no one else but me and is the culmination…of decades of searching, and I am home now'.
Cassab died in November 2015, leaving behind a significant body of work, exhibited both in Australia and internationally. As a migrant and as a woman, she overcame remarkable obstacles to define her place and purpose as an artist: ‘My art work is so intrinsically interwoven in the fabric of my being that I cannot conceive of any sort of existence without it. I pray that I never have to.’
Production date 1998 - 1998
Object namepaintings
Dimensions
- width: 460.00 mm
height: 350.00 mm
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Peter Kampfner