Label Type
Descriptive LabelLabel
AtBridge -- In Holocaust, one is confronted with a sequence of distorted decaying bodies that seem to hover in confined and complex spaces. His emphasis of line over form and the figures sense of struggle gives the work a hard edge. Amongst the horrific tension lie subtle undertones of concern and compassionLabel
"Jacob Landau began his career illustrating books and magazines. He won a scholarship to attend the Philadelphia Museum Art School. Following two-year’s service in the American Army (1943-46) Landau completed schooling at the New School, NY (1947-48) and the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, Paris (1949-52).
After teaching at the Museum Art School he enlisted as faculty for Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. He chaired their Dept. of Graphic Art & Illustration, remaining at Pratt until 1980. Landau also instructed at the Artist-Teacher Institute, an intensive 10-day summer residency program sponsored by the New Jersey Council on the Arts.
By 1960 Landau established himself as a major lithograph printer and an artist versatile in all media. Counted among his greatest works: 1. The “Dante Cycle,” (1974) featuring seven lithographs illustrating the Inferno, and 2. Ten stained-glass windows (1969-70), each 5’ wide by 20’ high, dedicated to a different prophet (Knesset Israel Congregation in Philadelphia’s Elkins Park).
In the traditions of Dürer, Goya, Blake, Beckmann, Köllwitz, and Orozco, Landau’s style corresponds to German Expressionism. Landau said, “I’ve been called a humanist . . . I have a strong sense of how man’s inhumanity to man has created the kind of society we live in” (1999, Woodmere retrospective). In 1999 the artist began a group of drawings, “Necropolis,” expressing his horror at the carnage of the 20th century, calculating that 130-million people died in all its wars.
The book The Francis Cycle: Some Motions of the Earth (1999) contains Landau images alongside poems by friend David Herstrom, collecting Landau’s wife’s words, uttered as Francis struggled with Alzheimer’s disease. Jacob Landau’s remains lie near where he lived since 1954, Roosevelt, New Jersey – home to a group of artists including the famous Ben Shahn, Gregorio Prestopino, and several writers and folk musicians.
---
ArtBridge -- Jacob Landau, American, (1917-2001)
""I’ve been called a humanist. I’m involved with the tradition of protest that comes from the prophets of the Old Testament. They were concerned with justice and injustice. I am too."" – Jacob Landau 1999
Painter, lithographer, illustrator and designer, Jacob Landau is one of America’s most prolific and original 20th century artist. Before studying at the Philadelphia College of Art, Landau first served with the American Army from 1934-46. With an intense interest in life and the human condition, Landau entered the New School for Social Research, in New York from 1947-48 and went to further his artistic endeavors at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, in Paris from 1949-52. He began his career as a magazine illustrator and became the editor of At Ease. By 1960 Landau had established himself as a major lithographic artist and created many works in this medium for the Associated American Artists, the Pratt Graphic Art Center and the Tamarind Lithography Workshop. His work has been exhibited extensively in Europe, Mexico, and South America as well as throughout the United States in over 30 one-man and 200 regional and national group shows. Among the major public collections in which he is represented are the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Library of Congress.
This expressive tumultuous work is fueled by the tragic events of Landau's life, particularly World War II and the Nazi holocaust. "