Artist’s headstone was
a friend’s labor of love
Jacob Landau’s grave
marked with
his own work, words
BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer

The headstone for Jacob Landau, a Roosevelt artist, was installed last month and dedicated Sunday in front of a gathering of family and friends.

ROOSEVELT — Although Jacob Landau was buried in the Roosevelt Cemetery among other borough legends, artists Ben Shahn and Gregorio Prestopino, his burial place was missing something.

But almost two years after Landau passed away just before his 86th birthday, his headstone is finally in place. On Sunday morning, 20 to 25 people gathered at the cemetery to pay their respects to Landau’s memory and to dedicate the headstone, which is inscribed with a copy of Landau’s own linoleum cut called "Baroque Apotheosis."

The headstone, which was installed last month, was the culmination of a labor of love by Landau’s friend, who is also the curator of his collection.

"I designed the headstone using one of Jacob’s favorite designs. It was a linoleum cut executed in 1957 for Epic records. The commission was used as an album cover," Rosa Giletti said. It is the cover of a Hewitt Chamber Orchestra recording of the Concerto in G Major for Three Flutes and Orchestra by Michel Corette.

Giletti said it wasn’t easy getting the entire image done correctly. In fact, she said it was done incorrectly the first time.

"The entire stone [of black granite] had to be shipped back to Vermont to be re-etched. I remember my day at the monument site all too clearly. I ran back and forth to the printer, enlarging and refining the image until I felt it reached Jacob’s standards. It literally took hours since we had to constantly shift the paper back and forth to position it correctly.

"Choosing the script was an easier assignment, thanks to the aid of the computer. When you look at the etching, the etcher truly did a fine job capturing the delicacy of the lithograph and the fine details of Jacob’s design. Images of other figures are quite visible," Giletti said.

The carefully chosen inscription is appropriate not only because they are Landau’s own words, but also because in the tiny cemetery, he is surrounded by artists who lived, worked and died in the small town that supports artists and might also be considered an endangered species. The headstone reads "Without art we are an endangered and endangering species."

Giletti said she had never done anything like this before.

"It’s a humbling task and one feels quite overwhelmed by having the responsibility to memorialize another person in such a permanent fashion."

Landau’s memorial coincided with an exhibit of his work, and the work of six of his former students, held at his dome house on Saturday. Giletti said that more than 120 people attended the exhibition and the concert that followed.

"Many left the exhibition and went over to the cemetery to pay their respects to Jacob," she said.

Giletti said she will also hold an open house at his studio at 30 Lake Drive Saturday.

Contact Rose Giletti Fine Art at (215) 368-2536 for further information.