painter, was born Judit Kaszab in Vienna, Austria, on 15 August 1920, to Hungarian parents Imre Kaszab and Ilona, née Kont. Her parents soon separated and Judith went with her mother back to Hungary to live with her grandmother. She wanted to be an artist from an early age, even though she had little experience of galleries and paintings; when she was twelve (1932) she drew a charcoal portrait of her grandmother (reproduced in Klepac). She began her studies at the Academy of Art in Prague in 1938; the following year she married Jancsi (John) Kampfner, a man twice her age.

The outbreak of World War II changed everybody’s life; in the Kampfners’ case, Jancsi was sent to forced labour camps in Poland and Kiev and Judith’s mother was sent to Auschwitz. Judith worked in a factory under the assumed name of her Catholic maid Maria Koperdak, putting her artistic skills to use after hours as a forger of papers and passports. When the war ended, her husband returned; their first child was born on New Year’s Eve 1945.

Life in post-war Europe had little to offer them. The Kampfners and their (now two) sons obtained permission to migrate to Australia. They arrived at Sydney in 1951, living first at Bondi and later Woollahra. Judith soon made contact with other Sydney artists – including Michael Kmit, Paul Haefliger, Jean Bellette and Desiderius Orban—and established herself as a portrait painter. Although she has revisited Europe several times, undertaking several important portrait commissions there and gaining an international reputation, she became an Australian citizen in 1957.

Judith Cassab is a prolific and accomplished artist, able to paint portraits in a single sitting if necessary. Her portraits have won many awards, several of them twice: the Archibald Prize (1960 and 1968), the Australian Women’s Weekly women’s prize (1955 and 1956) and the Helena Rubinstein Prize (1964 and 1965). Her exhibition credits are prodigious. Judith Cassab was awarded the Order of Australia in 1988, the Bicentennial year.

Writers:

Callaway, Anita
Kerr, Joan

Date written:

1995

Last updated:

1992