In collaboration with the Antonine University in Lebanon and under the supervision of the Lebanese artist Brahim Samaha, the Gibran National Committee launched the “20 Drawings” book of Gibran, printed for the first time in Lebanon. The event took place on December 4, 2014 at 18.00 p.m. at the Virgin Mega Stores – Beirut downtown.
“The timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness. And knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.” The Prophet
No better words than his to write the first sentences portraying the aspirations behind the new edition of this book.
Published for the first time in 1919, in different trade prints and a limited edition of one hundred copies autographed by the author, Twenty Drawings is a collection of some of Gibran’s illustrations: a color frontispiece and nineteen black-and-white drawings. A compilation said to be the only book designed by Gibran himself, up to the smallest detail.
The republishing of Twenty Drawings embarked the involved parties on a journey to find twelve original color illustrations out of the twenty. Two of them were generously shared by the Telfair Museum of Art while the other ten came from the Gibran Museum collection. The substitution of the black-and-white drawings with the color ones constitutes the single enhancement made to the 1919 limited edition of this book.
The Gibran National Committee entrusted the Lebanese painter Brahim Samaha to orchestrate this venture. Sharing the same vision, Université Antonine is breathing life into this book again to revive Gibran’s ideologies and spirituality; a collaboration and an involvement in the enduring efforts that the Gibran National Committee take on to preserve the artistic heritage and philosophical thought of one of Lebanon’s greatest treasures: Gibran Khalil Gibran.
