Searching for answers to life's questions through art
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP
Staff Writer

ROOSEVELT - A door opens, and through it a spiritual perspective can be found.

The sliding door into Jacob Landau's dome house and studio will reopen this week for guests to take a look at the artwork the late Roosevelt resident created trying to answer questions such as, Are we performers in relation to scenarios of mystic proportions - archetypes, root metaphors - or are we playthings of fate? Are we heroes or victims, winners or losers? Do we form ourselves or are we formed? In whose book are we characters?

The Roosevelt Arts Project (RAP), a nonprofit group of artistic residents of this small western Monmouth County community who are devoted to promoting fellow artists - late and contemporary - who have taken root in Roosevelt, and the Jacob Landau Legacy Preservation Trust will present the fifth annual Jacob Landau Studio event at 30 Lake Drive on Nov. 11-12.

"Jacob Landau: Visionary/Humanist" will feature a comprehensive presentation of Landau's art, including woodcuts, lithographs, oils, watercolors and many works not seen before, according to curator Rosa Giletti.

Among the art on display will be some of the representations from "The Kingdom of Dreams," which is a suite of 24 color lithographs on stone and zinc that Landau illustrated for the writings of E.T.A. Hoffmann.

Also on display will be two representations from "The Prophetic Quest," which is a series of 10 stained-glass windows Landau designed to translate the messages of biblical prophets for the Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park, Pa.

"Landau's art reflects his deep intellectual and philosophical concerns as an internationally respected humanist-artist and futures-oriented thinker," Giletti said.

"While some artists reject objectivity in their work, Landau continued to explore basic themes of human existence with a passionate and indignant insight," she said.

RAP will hold an opening reception Nov. 11 from 5-8 p.m., with a concert at 8 p.m. by Roosevelt's David Brahinsky and friends.

The exhibition will continue on Nov. 12 from 2-5 p.m., with a 3 p.m. concert titled "Voice and Vision, Making A Difference" by Karen Santinon, accompanied by Jeff Unger. The duo will offer a cabaret-style performance featuring jazz standards, Academy Award-winning selections, and songs rich with imagery and storytelling, according to Giletti.

Giletti said the concerts will complement the presentation of Landau's work.

"Jacob was a humanist and a visionary, if you will," Giletti said. "He was a humanist not in the Renaissance sense that he was apart from everything, but that he was one with nature and the universe."

Landau was a Roosevelt resident until he died in 2001. He had studied at the Philadelphia College of Art in Pennsyl-vania, the New School in New York, and the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris. He was a professor at Pratt Insti-tute in Brooklyn, N.Y., and his work has been exhibited extensively in Europe, Mexico, South America and throughout the United States. 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.

Giletti said she will have Landau's dome studio open by appointment through Dec. 16.

Since Landau believed in alternatives to the existing systems in education and art and promoted nontraditional learning structures, Giletti said the recently established Jacob Landau Institute will partner with Monmouth University, West Long Branch, to offer art classes in Landau's studio in the near future.

"He believed in continuing the future of art as investment in our future," Giletti said.

For more information or to make a reservation for the concerts, contact Rosa Giletti at (215) 368-2536 or at

rosagiletti@aol.com.