Jacob Landau, American (1917 - 2001)

  A twentieth century painter, lithographer, illustrator and designer, Jacob Landau first served with the American Army (1943-46) before studying at the Philadelphia College of Art, the New School for Social Research, New York (1947-48), and at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, Paris (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. Jacob Landau also taught at the Philadelphia Museum Art School and served as a director of the design department at the Pratt Institute.
Landau's art received many prestigious awards and grants, such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and Guggenheim and Tamarind fellowships. Institutions that today include his lithographs in their permanent collections are The Library of Congress, Washington, DC, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Earth Mother was commissioned by the Associated American Artists of New York in 1969 in a sole limited edition of 250 impressions. Since its creation in the mid 1930's the Associated American Artists commissioned original graphic art from such great masters as Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, Reginald Marsh and others. It published etchings and lithographs of no less stature during the 1960's and 1970's as contributing artists from around the world included Lily Harmon, Jacob Landau, W. B. Eberhard Eggers, Peter Klitsch, Robert Bero, David Shapiro, Jack Levine, Chaim Koppelman, Joseph Margulies, James Kearns, Gregory Masurovsky, Jack Coughlin and Sidney Chafetz. Jacob Landau created a number of fine lithographs for this publisher at this time.
Provenance: From the collection of Roger Trlak and bearing his inventory number, 'T-1115', on the verso. Roger Trlak (1934-1975) established the commercial art company of Martin-Trlak in Chicago. In 1972 he also opened the RST Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona where he exhibited not only his own large collection of mostly contemporary art but also held important exhibitions of many modern artists. These Included such major American and international printmakers as Joseph Hirsch, Luigi Lucioni, Jacob Landau, Birgit Skiold and Paul Wunderlich. Among Trlak's closest friends in the arts community were Raphael Soyer, Ivan Albright and Hans Burkhardt. Contemporary prints and paintings were constantly exhibited at the RST Gallery until it was closed in 1975 due to Trlak's untimely death.

Education:

Philadelphia College of Art

Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial Philadelphia, PA

New School of Social Research New York, NY

Academie de la Grande Chaumiere Paris, France

New School for Social Research New York, NY

Philadelphia, PA


Exhibitions

1999 Prints By Jacob Landau: The Dante Cyle, The Print Center Philadelphia, PA

1999 Tobey C. Moss Gallery Los Angeles, CA

1999 George Krevsky Gallery San Fransisco, CA

1991 Alfred E. Noyes Museum New Jersey

1990 New Jersey Printmasters, Printmaking Council Clinton, NJ

1988 , Martin Smers Graphics New York, NY

1987 People, Places and Things, The Print Club Philadelphia, PA

1984 Dreams and Nightmares- Utopian Visions in Modern Art, Hirshorn Art Museum Washington, DC

1982 Jacob Landau Selected Prints and Drawings, Mary Ryan Gallery New York, NY

1981 Marquette Art Center Michigan

1980 Artists at Work Gallery Pittsburgh, PA

1979 , Daberkow Galery Frankfurt, W.Germany

1978 Sandstone Graphics New York, NY

1974 National Academy of Arts and Letters New York, NY

1973 Imprint Gallery San Fransisco, CA

1972 Galeria Pecanins Mexico City, Mexico

1970 The Print Club Philadelphia, PA

1970 Whitney Museum of American Art New York, NY