Untitled (Still Life with decorative table cloth)
Object numberM2017/011:005
TitleUntitled (Still Life with decorative table cloth)
Creator Judy Cassab (artist)
DescriptionThis is a still life painting by Australian artist Judy Cassab. As one of the country’s most respected female artists, she was well-known for her talents as a portraitist, but also painted a significant body of landscapes. She won the Archibald twice, in 1961 and 1963 and has been awarded numerous other awards and honours.
Judy Cassab was 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, but 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 Judy’s immediate family perished in the Holocaust. In 1951, she migrated to Australia with her husband and two young sons. Her first solo exhibition was held at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney in 1953.
Judy's early portrait work later 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 outward 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'.
Judy 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, Cassab 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.’
Judy Cassab was 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, but 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 Judy’s immediate family perished in the Holocaust. In 1951, she migrated to Australia with her husband and two young sons. Her first solo exhibition was held at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney in 1953.
Judy's early portrait work later 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 outward 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'.
Judy 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, Cassab 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 1965 - 2015
Object namepaintings
Dimensions
- width: 400.00 mm
height: 500.00 mm
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Peter Kampfner