Dr. David Herrstrom, president of the Jacob Landau Institute in Roosevelt, discussed the artist’s “Holocaust Suite” at a Sept. 14 reception at the new Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County.
Photos by Jill Huber
On the artist
JACOB LANDAU was a world-renowned painter and lithographer. He was born in 1917 in Philadelphia, studied at the Philadelphia College of Art, and received a doctorate of fine arts from Monmouth University in 1996. (The Jacob Landau Institute of Roosevelt last spring donated more than 300 of his works to the university in West Long Branch).
He spent most of his adult life in Roosevelt, originally called Jersey Homesteads, which was created during the Great Depression as part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal. The town was home to a cooperative farming and manufacturing project as well as to many other Jewish artists and writers. Landau died in 2001 at 85 and is buried in the Roosevelt Cemetery.
His works are part of the permanent collections of numerous museums, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
“Jacob Landau: Humanist and Visionary” will continue on display at the new Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County in Freehold Township until Oct. 26.
September 23, 2008
The art of the late Jacob Landau — whose work explores the landscape of the human imagination — is now on display at the new Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County.
“Jacob Landau: Humanist and Visionary,” the museum’s first exhibit, opened on Sept. 14 at a reception at the museum on Wemrock Road in Freehold Township.
More than 150 attendees viewed the 23-piece exhibit, which includes the artist’s “Holocaust Suite,” a series of lithographs completed in 1968 that depict Landau’s interpretations of the pain and suffering endured by Holocaust victims.
The suite of seven pieces is on loan from Drew University in Madison. The remainder of the exhibit — which will be on display until Oct. 26 — is on loan courtesy of the Jacob Landau Institute in Roosevelt. Ten of the 23 works are available for purchase.
Although this is the museum’s first major exhibit, an official opening gala is scheduled to take place next spring.
“Landau, who was born in the United States — he died in 2001 — created the ‘Holocaust Suite’ as an imaginary witness, as he was neither a survivor nor the child of survivors,” JLI president Dr. David Herrstrom told NJ Jewish News. “But he was profoundly affected by it, and he revealed his sense of anguish in these artistic expressions. We are drawn into the suffering.”
The titles of the lithographs in “Holocaust Suite” — Man’s End, Songs in the Night, The Geography of Hell, The Holocaust, The Mark of Cain, The Question, and The Road Back — “evoke thoughts of whether there are boundaries for persecution, and the drawings show victims who are emaciated, suffering, and who are edging toward death,” said Herrstrom. “The names also touch on the concepts of heaven and hell, responsibility for the Holocaust, and the need to never forget what took place during this terrible time in history.”
But some of the titles also imply a more positive outlook; for example, The Road Back portrays Holocaust survivors attempting to reassemble the pieces of their lives, he said.
‘Disturbing and powerful’
Herrstrom, who discussed the “Holocaust Suite” with the audience during the Sept. 14 reception, defined the works as a series of tragic and satiric images that may have been influenced by Landau’s stint in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1946.
“I resisted the word ‘satiric’ for a long time,” Herrstrom said. “Then I realized that both tragedy and satire are essential to reach the levels of anguish and power that are in the suite. Landau gave us the images, but not necessarily the answers. That’s how an artist works.”
Michael Berman, president of the Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County, introduced visitors to the life of artist Jacob Landau at the reception.
Despite the supreme acts of human courage that took place during the Holocaust, Landau’s suite portrays a sense of clarity about the nature of evil, Herrstrom said.
“The intensity of these lithographs engulfs us,” he said. “They are disturbing and extremely powerful. Landau didn’t want us to feel good when we saw them. And yet, after viewing the ‘Holocaust Suite,’ you’re left with the feeling that, despite the suffering, we might be able to envision a world without it.”
Planning and securing the Landau exhibit was a major undertaking for the museum and its Jacob Landau gala committee, said museum president Michael Berman of Freehold Township.
“The museum moved from a concept to a reality because of the Landau exhibit,” he said. “Our mission is to continue to combine exhibits with performances and programs that will create memorable experiences for museum visitors.”
The reception also was designed to increase public awareness of the facility, according to Joel Stern of Freehold Township, chair of the event committee. The display was curated by Rosa Giletti, artistic adviser to the JLI.
“We began planning for this event in May 2008,” said Stern. “It was a very gratifying experience as we saw it come to fruition. Making the public more aware of the museum’s purpose was one of our primary goals, and I think we achieved that.”
Additional information about museum hours and future exhibits — most will be free of charge, while some will require a ticket purchase — is available from the museum office at 732-252-6990.
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