Guide to the Papers of Judy Cassab
MS 1541 et al.
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Collection Summary
- Creator
- Judy Cassab
- Title
- Papers of Judy Cassab
- Date Range
- 1944-2006
- Collection Number
- MS 1541 et al.
- Extent
- 7.2 metres (12 boxes, 15 folio boxes)
- Language of Materials
- English
- Repository
- National Library of Australia
Introduction
Scope and Contents
The papers fall into four categories. The first series consists of general correspondence relating to Cassab's artistic activities. There are letters from fellow artists, individuals responding to her Diaries, publishers, art galleries, portrait sitters, and from private and organisational owners of her art works. There are also postcards, receipts, invitations and transcripts of addresses.
Secondly, there is a series of journals documenting Cassab's personal and family life and details of her professional career spanning the years 1944 to 1997. Themes that emerge in the journal entries are sittings for portraits and progress on her work, social occasions, exhibitions, family and friends, her reading and personal feelings and thoughts.
The third category consists of newspaper cuttings reporting on Cassab's exhibitions, and copies of corresponding exhibition invitations and catalogues.
The fourth grouping comprises 24 scrapbooks and albums containing photographs and newspaper cuttings that document Cassab's artistic achievements and exhibitions held between 1951 and 1997.
Conditions Governing Access
Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2976241).
Conditions Governing Use
Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.
Preferred Citation
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Judy Cassab, National Library of Australia [class number, box number, series and/or file number]'.
Provenance
The original consignments of papers were donated by Judy Cassab to the National Library in 1975 and 1985. Subsequent donations were made under the Taxation Incentive for the Arts Scheme in 1988, 1991, 1995 and 1998. Two donations under the Cultural Gifts Programme were made in 1999.
Biographical Note
Judy Cassab was born in Vienna of Hungarian parents in August 1920. She began painting at the age of 12, and studied art in Prague (1939) and at the Budapest Academy (1945-49). In 1938 she married Jancsi Kampfner. She lived in Hungary until 1949, and in 1951, already accomplished as a painter, she emigrated to Australia with her family.
In Australia, Cassab established a reputation as a painter of abstracts and as a portraitist. In 1953 she held the first of numerous solo exhibitions at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney. Other solo exhibitions were held at the Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney, between 1963 and 1982, and in several other Australian cities. In 1978 and 1981 she exhibited at the New Art Centre in London, and she also exhibited at the Australian Embassy in Paris in 1981. Portrait exhibitions were held at the S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, in 1988; the von Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle, in 1988; the Solander Gallery, Canberra, in 1988; the National Library of Australia, in 1988; and the Holdsworth Gallery, Sydney, in 1990.
Cassab's portraits of many distinguished Australian artists, writers, performing artists, academics and public figures include Jeffrey Smart, Eva Klug, Morris West, Sir Robert Helpmann, Dame Joan Sutherland, Margaret Olley, Bishop E.H. Burgmann, Lord D'Lisle, Professor Fred Jevons, Dr Keith Brown and Sir Frank Packer. Cassab's portrait commissions also include H.R.H. the Duke of Kent and his family, the Duchess of Gloucester, Princess Alexandra and Queen Sirikit of Thailand. She has also painted self-portraits. She is represented in galleries throughout Australia, London and Hungary.
Cassab has been the winner of several art prizes and awards. She won the Archibald Prize in 1961 for her portrait of the artist Stanislaus Rapotec, and again in 1968 for her portrait of Margo Lewers. In 1955 Cassab won her first two art prizes: the Perth Prize with a portrait of Michael Kmit and the Women's Weekly Prize with a portrait of Judy Barraclough. She was awarded the CBE for services to the arts in 1969 and she became an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1988. She was a Trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 1980 to 1988. In 1995 Sydney University conferred upon her the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.
Cassab's artworks have featured in various publications, and in 1995 she published her Diaries, based on the journals in the collection covering the period 1944 to 1994. In 1996 she won the Nita B. Kibble Award for women writers for her Diaries.
Sources:
1. A dictionary of women artists of Australia / Max Germaine (Roseville East, N.S.W.: Craftsman House, 1991)
2. The encyclopedia of Australian art / Alan McCulloch, revised and updated by Susan McCulloch (St. Leonards, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 1994)
Item Descriptions
Class MS 1541. Original consignment
Comprises correspondence, 1959-1999, nine diaries, newspaper cuttings and 24 scrapbooks and photograph albums. The correspondence series includes letters from her husband, readers of her Diaries, publishers, art galleries, portrait sitters and owners of her artworks. There is a series of diaries documenting Judy Cassab's personal and family life and details of her professional career spanning the years 1944-1997. There are copies of newspaper cuttings, and albums containing photographs and articles that describe her artistist achievements and exhibitions held between 1951 and 1997. The collection provides a comprehensive record of Cassab's artistic activities, her contacts with the Australian art world and her personal life.
Contained in 8 boxes, 12 folio boxes.
Series 1. Correspondence, 1959-99
The series comprises both personal and business correspondence and consists chiefly of letters received by Cassab. The correspondence covers Cassab's public engagements, commissions for portraits, arrangements for including her artworks in exhibitions, requests to reproduce her artworks in publications, and requests from publishers and the media to hold interviews. There are letters from readers congratulating her on her publications and from individuals and organisations that have acquired her works. There are letters from her husband, Jancsi, written in Hungarian.
The series also includes copies of opening addresses given by Justice Michael Kirby and Monique Atlas at exhibitions held in 1996 (file 17) and 1999 (file 22), respectively. There is a copy of a paper by Justice Kirby entitled '"Ping Pong" with Judy Cassab' (n.d.) (file 21). File 17 also contains a letter from Edwin Wilson enclosing the autographed poem 'Judy's chair'.
Correspondents include Hal Missingham, Sir Percy Joske, Lady Cutler, Judith Wright, Lou Klepac, John Hayes, Edmund Capon, Elizabeth Riddell, Jeffrey Smart, John Wolseley, Eva Klug, Morris West, Sir Asher Joel, Elwyn (Jack) and Lily Lynn, Fr Emmet P. Costello, Anna Gray, Justice Michael Kirby, Liz Byrski, Brenda Niall, Chris van Otterloo, Marlene Stafford, Joseph Brown, Paul Knobel, Bernhard Newman, Rosalie Gascoigne, the Duke and Duchess of Kent and Princess Alexandra.
Series 2. Diaries, 1944-97
This series comprises Cassab's diaries, in English, dating from 1944, when Cassab was 24, until 1997. Transcribed from handwritten originals, the journals are bound in numbered volumes.
In 1995 Cassab published her journals covering the fifty year period from 1944 to 1994 under the title Judy Cassab diaries (Milsons Point, N.S.W.: Random House).
Series 3. Newspaper cuttings, 1951-75
This series contains newspaper cuttings, including some cuttings in Hungarian. It also includes copies of exhibition invitations and catalogues, two photos, and copies of handwritten autobiographical notes. Most of the cuttings are photocopies. File 1 includes copies of letters dated 1951.
Series 4. Scrapbooks and photograph albums, 1951-97
The scrapbooks and albums contain photographs of Cassab's art works and exhibitions, exhibition brochures and catalogues, newspaper cuttings, articles, exhibition reviews and photographs of social occasions. Early albums contain correspondence as well.
Item 2 contains the invitation and catalogue issued for Cassab's first exhibition held at the Macquarie Galleries, 22 April - 6 May, 1953. Item 12 includes a letter from Patrick White. Item 15 has photographs of Beregszasz in Hungary where Cassab lived with her mother and grandmother. Item 18 includes photographs of portraits by Cassab exhibited at the National Trust's S.H. Ervin Gallery in 1988, together with the subjects of the portraits.
Class MS Acc01.017. Consignment added 2001
Comprises volume 10 of Cassab's diary, December 1997-April 2000.
Contained in 1 box.
Class MS Acc02.072. Consignment added 2002
Comprises correspondence, some dating from 2002.
Contained in 1 box.
Class MS Acc04.055. Consignment added 2004
Comprises correspondence, cards, postcards, emails and enclosures.
Contained in 1 box.
Class MS Acc06.020. Consignment added 2006
Comprises seven volumes of cutting books, 1955-1957, 1961, 1968-1976, 1982-1988, 1994-1995; four albums of original photographs, cuttings and documents, 1994-1995 and 1997-2001; an album of photographs of portraits; and, letters, 2004-2006. The cutting books are copies.
Contained in 1 box, 3 folio boxes.