Judy Cassab

Cassab’s portraits are not merely records of appearance but penetrating encounters — works in which the sitter’s character, intelligence, and inner world are present as palpably as their physical likeness. Her handling of paint was confident and gestural, the surface alive with the energy of a painter who trusted her instincts completely.

Her collaboration with Fred Genis produced two significant bodies of work. Australian Portraits — a portfolio of ten lithographs produced in 1984 — brought together some of the most distinguished figures in Australian cultural life: Dame Joan Sutherland, Sir Robert Helpmann, Peter Sculthorpe, Donald Friend, Sir Sidney Nolan, Lloyd Rees, Rosemary Dobson, Judith Wright, Morris West, and Thomas Keneally. The portfolio is a remarkable document of Australian cultural life at a particular moment, each portrait a distillation of a lifetime’s achievement rendered with Cassab’s characteristic warmth and precision. That she also made a portrait of Fred Genis himself places him in distinguished company — a quiet acknowledgement from one master of her craft to another.

Judy Cassab died in Sydney in 2015. Her work is held in every major Australian public collection.