August 14, 2023

A Greater Beauty: The Drawings of Kahlil Gibran at The Drawing Center, through September 10, 2023

“The first exhibition of its kind in the United States, A Greater Beauty: The Drawings of Kahlil Gibran features over one hundred drawings by the prolific Lebanese-American artist, poet and essayist, and coincides with the 100th anniversary of Gibran’s world-renowned publication, The Prophet. Though best known for his poetry and prose, Gibran viewed himself equally as a visual artist, producing paintings, watercolors, sketches, illustrations, book covers, and other material as a complement to his written work. A Greater Beauty presents an overview of Gibran’s drawings and sketches alongside manuscript pages, notebooks, correspondence, magazine illustrations and essays, and first editions, providing a glimpse into the artist’s production in the context of his work as a whole.” — The Drawing Center

Kahlil Gibran, A Woman with a Blue Veil, 1916. Watercolor, 8 1/2 x 10 inches (21.5 x 25.3 cm). Collection of the Gibran Khalil Gibran Museum, Courtesy of the Gibran National Committee.
Kahlil Gibran, The Waterfall, 1919. Watercolor, 12 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches (32.5 x 21.5 cm). Collection of the Gibran Khalil Gibran Museum, Courtesy of the Gibran National Committee.
Kahlil Gibran, Untitled, 1921. Watercolor and pencil on paper, 5 x 6 inches (12.7 x 15.2 cm) 16 × 20 inches (40.6 × 50.8 cm). Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, Gift of Mary Haskell Minis. Photography by Daniel L. Grantham, Jr., Graphic Communication.
Kahlil Gibran, The Triad-Being Descending Towards the Mother Sea, 1923. Watercolor, 11 x 8 1/2 inches (28 x 21.5 cm). Collection of the Gibran Khalil Gibran Museum, Courtesy of the Gibran National Committee.
Kahlil Gibran, The Divine World, 1923. Charcoal, 11 x 8 ½ inches (28 x 21.6 cm). Collection of the Gibran Khalil Gibran Museum, Courtesy of the Gibran National Committee.
Kahlil Gibran, The Summit, c. 1925. Watercolor and pencil on paper, 11 x 8 1/2 inches (27.9 x 21.6 cm). Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, Gift of Mary Haskell Minis. Photography by Erwin Gaspin.

A Greater Beauty: The Drawings of Kahlil Gibran is organized by Claire Gilman, Chief Curator, with Isabella Kapur, Curatorial Associate, and Anneka Lenssen, Associate Professor of Global Modern Art, University of California, Berkeley.

Images courtesy The Drawing Center.