Kahlil George Gibran Art for Sale and Sold Prices

b. 1922 - d. 2008

Kahlil George Gibran, born Nov. 29, 1922, and who died April 15,2008, was an artist, sculptor, inventor, collector and art restorer. This Boston sculptor/artist, and man of many brilliant talents, was named after his famous relative, poet, artist and author of The Prophet. In part to secure a separate identity, the younger sculptor co-authored with his wife, Jean, a biography of his namesake entitled Kahlil Gibran His Life and World (Interlink Books, N.Y., 1991). A copy of that book the authors inscribed in 1992 with the phrase:“Here’s to the joyous meld of arts & craft .” That phrase reveals the breadth of interests and artistic skills embodied in the art and craft made by Kahlil over many years. A graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts,( where he studied with Karl Zerbe) Gibran gained first critical notice in the 1940s as a magic realist painter. But he soon branched into a multitude of creative directions with a group of artists that were known as “Boston Expressionists”. He worked in many media that included clay, stone, wood, wax and welded sculpture. He also became renown for making musical instruments and inventing a new tripod for camera support that exceeded all others in technical virtuosity. He worked as a draftsman in Harvard’s Underwater Sound Laboratory and became involved with the preservation and restoration of art in Harvard’s Conservation Laboratory at the Fogg Museum. While maintaining freelance work restoring and repairing fine art objects at 15 Fayette St., Boston, he also maintained an active exhibition schedule of his own works while even in his twenties. In 1949 he married Eleanor (Elly) Mott and began working with Provincetown artists on the Cape. There, Gibran and his wife opened a boutique called Paraphernalia. But Gibran’s restless spirit to explore avenues other than shop keeping drew him back to Boston and the couple separated, with Elly keeping the shop. In the late 60’s Gibran’s career turned towards sculpture and musical instrument building. He became a self-taught toothier making Renaissance-style lutes, bows vihuela and other early stringed instruments while also building violins and publishing his research on his discoveries pertaining to the brilliant tonal qualities of Stradivarius and Cremonese instrument makers. The evolution of his sculpture was stimulated through enrollment at the Wentworth Institute of Technology where he learned the process of Oxy-Acetylene welding. For years Gibran produced sculpture through welding rods and found iron objects and abandoned materials from the past. Works by Kahlil have been displayed in numerous museums across the Nation and awards that recognize his professional achievements abound. Collaboration with his second wife, Jean English, led to the publication of the book about Kahlil’s namesake (as noted above) plus a new direction in his sculpture. By the 1990s, Gibran abandoned welding and began working in ductile sheets of wax that were then cast in bronze. Many bas relief portraits followed. In 1981 he placed a twelve foot high bronze lady of the Cedars of Lebanon in Jamaica Plain at the site of the Maronite Church to which his family belonged, in fulfillment of a childhood promise to thus honor his parents. Gibran is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in the sculpture Path were, nearby, the public can admire bronze figures he made and donated to this cemetery. Forest Hills, was a favorite place of solitude and magic for him ever since boyhood. Kahlil and Jean donated many works of art from his personal collections to the Danforth Museum of Framingham, MA. They also made a gift of an extraordinary collection of historic European and American medals to the Los Angeles County Museum.