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