Before producing the literary works he is known for, which decades after their publication continue to attract an avid readership all over the world, to the surprise of many, Gibran Kahlil Gibran painted.
A collection of some of the Lebanese-American artist’s most prominent works is being displayed at the Sharjah Art Museum in an exhibition in collaboration with the Beirut-based Gibran National Committee.
“The main aim was to showcase him as Kahlil Gibran, the artist,” Alya al-Mulla, Curator of Sharjah Art Museum told Al Arabiya News.
“Everybody knows him as the writer, the philosopher, the poet, but not many people knew that he was an artist as well,” she said.
More than 30 individual works are on display, including a piece entitled “The Face of the Gifted One,” which has been used as the cover art on many editions of his 1923 book The Prophet.
To those who crave a deeper look into the mind that created the literary masterpieces he is best known for, this exhibition gives a look at artworks often conceived of by critics as running in parallel to his writing.
One of the pieces displayed is said to be of Gibran’s sister, whose early death at a young age deeply affected the artist.
