LDSArtCollector.com is dedicated to the art of Arnold Friberg. This site focuses on his LDS art and the blog focuses on a variety of subjects about the artists life and other influential Mormon artists.
But the Web is full of sites about Arnold Friberg and his artwork. Here are a few influential ones I’ve come across:FribergFineArt.comThis site claims to be the exclusive publisher of Arnold Friberg, but that doesn’t include any of his LDS art. The site does sell a lot of Friberg’s work including some of his originals, NCAA football, and the Ten Commandments.Wikipedia.comIt seems all famous people have a wikipedia page. Arnold Friberg is no exception. The site gives brief biographical information, a run-down of his artwork, and includes links to other sites including this site.Arnold-Friberg.comThis site is very similar to fribergfineart.com, but it has less of a selection and does not sell originals. It does carry limited editions of Friberg’s Prayer At Valley Forge painting. And users can purchase stuff using paypal.McGillFineArt.comThis site also has a good selection of Arnold Friberg prints. The site is not as organized as FribergFineArt.com or Arnold-Friberg.com, but the prices are better. I wish the site had a gallery that matched up with their inventory page.
Arguable the most famous artist in the world right now is author Stephenie Meyer. If you don’t already know she is the author of the Twilight series about vampires and the sciFi novel The Host. She has four of the top 10 bestselling books in America and a raved fan base.
Ironically, like other famous LDS artists Arnold Friberg and DJ Bawden, Meyer is from Phoenix, Arizona. But unlike them she has not produced anything that is strictly LDS. Unless you count her author bio which prints in the first line that she graduated from LDS owned Brigham Young University. That is possibly the best recruiting tool the university has ever had.But she also fairly new to the scene having had her first book published in 2005.
In almost every article written about her it mentions how she was a Mormon house mom turned bestselling author. I think it’s funny how the media loves to put the word “Mormon” in there. It’s not like other artists are labeled Catholic or Jewish. She complained about that in a USA Today feature story.
The LDS church owned book store, Deseret Book, sells all five of her books. The Mormon church will only sell books that meet a strict moral standard. Many LDS church members have complained that Deseret Book sells them. This is also something Friberg and Meyer have in common, controversy from the LDS church members. Many Mormons did not agree with Friberg’s depictions of scenes from The Book of Mormon.
Erich Kunzel, one of America’s most distinguished conductors and a National Medal of Arts recipient, said this week that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is the best in the world.
This weekend, Kunzel will lead the Utah Symphony and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, as part of the Tanner Gift of Music Series, in a concert at the LDS Conference Center called “An American Songbook.” The LDS conference center also holds the original Arnold Friberg Book of Mormon paintings, so if you head down you can also check those out.
The National Medal of Arts, the highest honor given to artists and arts patrons by the United States Government, is awarded to those who have made outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support and availability of the arts in the United States.
Arnold Friberg’s first assignment on the film The Ten Commandments was creating the art for the Egyptian and Hebrew clothing for the principle male stars. Friberg’s artistic designs played a crucial role in the telling of the story.
For example, in the scene of Pharaoh’s court in which rods are turned into serpents, Friberg wanted to set Moses apart from the Egyptians, who traditionally wore light-colored clothing. The artist decided to have a strongly contrasting robe for Moses to wear during his return from exile in Midian to seek the freedom of his people from bondage. The greatest contrast seemed to be a robe of red design, to which Friberg added black and white stripes that would be women into the fabric.
The entire robe was created, using Friberg’s costume painting as model, from goat’s hair, the cloth woven on looms identical in design to those used in ancient times. Although the artist did not realize it at the time, by almost miraculous coincidence the colors he used were the exact colors of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of Moses’ parents, according to the Bible. Thus, an added dimension of authenticity was present, and the garment from then on was called “the great Levite robe.”
Mormons David Archuleta and Julianna Hough are two LDS artists who are finding big success with mainstream audiences. Archuleta’s song Crush debuted #2 on the Billboard charts and Hough recently was a headliner at the Republican National Convention. Both artists are from Utah and found success after going to Hollywood.
LDS artist Arnold Friberg also found success by going to Hollywood when movie director Cecil B. Demille asked the artist to create paintings for a new film The Ten Commandments. When the director called Friberg he was in the middle of the working on scenes from The Book of Mormon that an LDS church owned magazine, The Children’s Friend, commissioned.
The paintings Friberg created for the movie were used as a marketing tool and were taken on tour around the World. More than one million people viewed the exhibit. The art was also republished as a calendar and sold thousands of copies.
A new LDS artist coming onto the scene is Mark Mabry. Unlike Mormon artist Arnold Friberg, who uses a paint brush, Mabry uses photographer to create his art.
The is exhibit is called Reflections of Christ and has been at the LDS visitors center in Mesa, Arizona for the past nine months or so. Like Friberg, Mabry is from Phoenix and got his start doing commercial work.
The traveling exhibit is in the Boise State student Union builder September 8th-14th. Then for the Mormon church’s general conference it will come to Salt Lake City, Utah.
Although the photos were not commissioned by the Mormon church, a book is being published under the LDS owned publishing company Deseret Book.
I’m sure the exhibit will come under great scrutiny from many members of the Mormon church and other Christian churches just like when Arnold Friberg’s picture of The Book of Mormon caused controversy. But I believe that this revolutionary art will play an important role in teaching people that Mormons are Christians.
In 1949 the University of Utah wanted to establish a commercial art training program with Arnold Friberg acting as a lecturer. At the time Friberg lived in San Francisco where he had numerous clients. But the artists wife, Hedve, was becoming more ill each day from the ocean air so the move to Utah’s dry climate seemed ideal. Salt Lake City was also the head quarters for the Mormon church.
The course Friberg taught was not a popular one, for he was determined to create a learning environment that would ensure a professional future in commercial art for the art students. Prior to this commercial art instruction had a reputation of being an easy course. But Friberg insisted on developing a substantive program. Thirty-five students signed up in the winter course, but after Friberg’s discipline style only five signed up in the spring. Fortunately, these were serious individuals, most of whom became successful commercial artists.
To save Friberg’s class from cancelation the committed students recruited people to ensure the minimum number of students necessary. By the fall semester, the serious art students eliminated the problems after more students recognized they could receive the training they desired from Friberg.
When Arnold Friberg entered World War II it was an ideal time for survival. By the time the artist had finished his training, German air superiority had been destroyed. Friberg was sent into combat in Germany, but the violence was no longer as intense as during the early months of the war.
Friberg was one of many artists who were overlooked by the topographic engineers who searched for soldiers with artistic skills. The army at that time was not sophisticated in its approach to assigning men to active duty. Friberg did get sent to silk-screen school in Texas. Each division was required to have one artistic man who could understand the silk-screen process for printing signs used during maneuvers. Friberg was already experienced in the processes so for him the week of training in Texas was pleasant.
Friberg only used the training once and it wasn’t for combat. The artist used his skills to for a party where he painted a regimental insignia for a gift.
Arnold Friberg’s is a devout Mormon and he took on the task of painting scenes from the LDS scriptures The Book of Mormon in the 1950s. Members of the Mormon church believe The Book of Mormon to be the word of God just like mainstream Christians believe the Bible to be the word of God.
Since artists started painting scenes from the Bible they’ve been met with much skepticism and criticism. What an artist creates from the sacred words influences the entire religion and how people view important events and people.
Arnold Friberg’s task with The Book of Mormon was no different. No artist had ever attempted to paint scenes from the LDS scriptures. The Mormon church commissioned the paintings and therefore retained control over Friberg’s creative power.
Arnold Friberg was always concerned with accuracy. The artist was afraid that after returning home from London to finish Prince Charles portrait it would be to late to change anything that was inaccurate. So Friberg decided he needed to make wax impressions of the Prince’s uniform.
Concerned that a rule might prevent the artist from creating wax impressions he decided not to ask permission and just did it. All the while Friberg felt nervous about the possible consequences. In th e end it paid off because the prince liked the portrait.
