Portrait of a generous soul: artist=
's
gift keeps on giving
Emily Dunn
![3D"‘‘She](3D"smh_files/image001.jpg")
<=
span
lang=3DEN style=3D'font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"inherit","serif";mso-bidi-f=
ont-family:
Arial;color:#333333;mso-ansi-language:EN'>‘‘She is considered
something of a national treasure in Hungary’’ ... Judy Cassab and her 1995 Portrait of Kevin Connor. Photo: Brendan Esposito
IF THE walls of Judy Cassab's Sydney home could talk they would probably g=
rumble
about the weight of art, both from her own brush and from those of
contemporaries such as Charles Blackman and Sidney Nolan.
For Cassab,
the relentless drive to paint has created an inevitable problem as she
approaches her 91st birthday: what to do with the accumulation of a life's
work?
The garage and studio at the two-ti=
me
Archibald Prize-winner's Sydney home hold sever=
al
hundred paintings, some dating as far back as the 1950s. Some significant w=
orks
will be kept and some sold, but 50 portraits and 350 landscapes, the bulk o=
f Cassab's personal collection, will be given to region=
al
galleries.
''Most of the state and national
galleries already have lots of Judy's paintings,'' her son John Seed, a
sculptor, explained. ''So we started contacting regional galleries, asking =
them
if they would be interested in including her work in their collections.''
With Cassab's<=
/span>
health failing and her memory deteriorating, Seed has undertaken the task of
distributing the works. Forty regional galleries across Australia have
indicated interest in the past few weeks.
Four of the 400 works have homes,
including a portrait of the artist and friend Kevin Connor, destined for the
Tweed River Art Gallery. The pair share the same birthday and still meet on
August 15 every year to celebrate.
''You'll be 91,'' Seed tells his
mother. ''Don't say that,'' she chuckles.
Until two years ago, Cassab painted every day. Hanging on her bedroom wall=
is a
charcoal sketch of her grandmother, drawn when Cassab<=
/span>
was just 12 in Hungary and one of the few works that survived World War II =
and
came to Australia with her.
Cassab's=
husband, Jansci, spent t=
he war
in a labour camp in Russia and, like her, lost =
his
parents and family members in concentration camps.
Cassab survived by living in a basement with a false identi=
ty.
In 1951 she emigrated to Australia with Jansci and their two young sons. She became the only =
woman
to win the Archibald twice, in 1960 and 1967.
Her contribution to the visual arts=
was
recognised in 1969 when she was made a Commande=
r of
the Order of the British Empire and in 1988 with an Order of Australia. This
week the Hungarian ambassador will visit her home to present on a Gold Cros=
s of
Merit on behalf of the Republic of Hungary.
''She is considered something of a
national treasure in Hungary,'' says Seed.