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Kahlil Gibran, 85
Renowned artist, inventor, creator & scholar
Kahlil Gibran, 85, of Boston’s South End, died on April 13 of sudden heart failure.
Born in 1922 and named after his famous poet cousin, Gibran Khalil Gibran, Kahlil grew up in what is now Chinatown, attending the Quincy School, the Abraham Lincoln School and English High School.
In the late ’40s, Mr. Gibran and his first wife, Eleanor Mott (now Berg), opened a boutique in Paraphernalia on Commercial Street in Provincetown, across from the Post Office. For a few years it was wildly successful and set the standard for off-beat, creative clothing.
He was also a painter and sculptor who participated in the original Forum 49, a lecture and exhibit series organized by Weldon Kees at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum in 1949. His welded figure “John the Baptist” was displayed prominently in the Chrysler Museum.
“He loved Provincetown and the town played a major role in his early career,” says his wife, Jean Gibran. “I'll always remember the huge grin on his face and his anticipation whenever we approached the P’town dunes. It was like he was home again.”
Among the late Provincetown artists he was especially close to were the poet Cecil Hemley and cartoonist-artist Mischa Richter. In recent years, though he maintained friends in Provincetown, he spent more of his time in Wellfleet.
Throughout his entire life, Gibran was an almost obsessive creator and collector of materials. He studied painting under Karl Zerbe at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, where he earned the nickname "Jittery Gibran" for his constant creative motion. Soon after leaving the Museum School, he began exhibiting his paintings nationally, and by the 1950s, his drawings, paintings and sculpture were sought by major museums, including the Whitney Museum, the Chicago Art Institute and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Over the years, his sculpture has been installed in public spaces across Boston and other cities. In the South End, his West Canton Street Child sculpture, of a young girl, sits in the center of Hayes Park, and his bronze bas relief of his poet cousin sits in Copley Square. Though he never sought fame, according to his wife and friends, his talent was honored with several awards, including the John Simon Guggenheim Prize, the Gold Medal from Trieste’s International Exhibit and the National Institute of Arts and Letters Award.
Gibran was also an accomplished craftsman, making everything from wallets of kangaroo hide, to leather sandals and belts, to an office desk and chair.
He is survived by his wife, Jean English Gibran; his former wife, Eleanor Mott Berg; his daughter, Nicole, of Seattle; his son, Timothy, of Stockholm; two sisters, Suzanne Huggin and Selma Vassall, both of San Diego; two grandsons and a granddaughter.
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William Ingraham, 80
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Apr 24th, 2008