The late Jacob Landau’s set of lithographic prints known as “The Holocaust Suite” will be exhibited at Monmouth University, West Long Branch.
Commissioned by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the seven lithographs were published in Albert Friedlander’s collection of Holocaust writings “Out of the Whirlwind” in 1968, according to the Jacob Landau Institute of Roosevelt, Monmouth County.
The printmaker who lived and worked most of his life in Roosevelt until his passing in 2001 described the set as a “series of tragic and satiric works that float over the abyss of human pretensions,” according to the institute.
Landau intended the works to be a powerful indictment as well as a profound humanist statement that draw viewers into seeing the men and women depicted as more than simply victims. The artist was neither a Holocaust survivor nor the son of a survivor. However, right after the war he met a group of Buchenwald survivors, a meeting that profoundly affected him, according to the institute.
“The Holocaust is the ultimate test of our humanity, and we flunked that test,” Landau once said, according to the institute. “Not just what Hitler did, but what the rest of the world didn’t do. The Holocaust sits on our shoulders like an incubus and we cannot exorcise it.”
Jane Denny, director of education at the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, said the series does not present viewers with either a redemptive message or moral paradigm to resolve their discomfort.
“This is what Jacob Landau wanted,” Denny said.
Born in 1917 in Philadelphia, where he launched his career as an illustrator winning national prizes at age 16 and a scholarship to the Philadelphia College of Art, Landau had more than 60 one-person shows throughout his lifetime.
He also received many awards, including Louis Comfort Tiffany, John Simon Guggenheim and National Arts Council grants. His work is included in the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Jersey State Museum and Hirshhorn Museum collections, among others.
A master teacher, Landau retired as professor emeritus at New York’s Pratt Institute. In 1996 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts by Monmouth University.
“The Holocaust Suite” is part of the MonmouthUniversity Jacob Landau collection, recently gifted to the university by the Jacob Landau Institute of Roosevelt.
As part of the exhibit at the Monmouth University Library, April 8-23, Holocaust survivor and artist Claire Boren will speak on “Art of the Holocaust” at 7 p.m. April 14.
For more information and docent tour times, contact Professor Susan Douglass at 732-263-5509.