Exhibitions 2005

<< back

To Discover Beauty: The Art of Kahlil Gibran
April 4 - 24, 2005

For a limited time in April, the Telfair displayed its unique collection of paintings and drawings by Kahlil Gibran. Best known as the sage-like, poetic author of The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran was also a gifted visual artist. Born in Bsherri, Lebanon, Gibran immigrated with his family to Boston in 1895 at the age of 12. After pursuing formal studies at the Academie Julian in Paris, in 1910 Gibran moved from Boston to the famous Tenth Street Studio apartments in New York City.

Gibran’s work reflects his assimilation of the lofty ideals of the late 19th-century art movements of Aestheticism and Symbolism. He strove to relay personal, often deeply spiritual, feelings in visual form. Gibran’s quest for humanity’s eternal and immutable truths is a consistent theme linking his literature and artwork. In his art, Gibran utilized idealized and archetypal human figures, often nude, to express universal concepts. Suggesting a link between the physical and spiritual realms, his ethereal figures seem to float in mid- air, unfettered by material bonds. The spiritual nature of Gibran’s figures is suggested through his use of soft, muted, and sometimes blurred outlines defining them.

The Telfair’s collection of over 80 Gibran works was donated by his most devoted patron, Mary Haskell, who had moved to Savannah to care for her late cousin’s husband, Jacob Florance Minis, whom she later married. Because of her generosity, the Telfair boasts the largest public collection of paintings by Gibran in North America.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Exhibitions

Now on view
2005 / 2006 / 2007