Friday, July 2, 2010

Farewell to Friberg

Arnold Friberg died yesterday, he was 96. One of my absolute favorite artists it pained me that the last few years I had seen his work disparaged so much online, the heroic figures of his works are absolute icons and he did not deserve to be nitpicked. He was the only American to ever be made an honorary member of the RCMP (Canadian Mounties) His creations have set the bar in regards to religious paintings.
Along with Frank Frazetta, Friberg was the artist I dreamt of one day painting a book cover for me.
RIP Brother Friberg, painter of Heroes.








23 comments:

LisaAnn said...

Wow. I have never put an artist's name to those pictures. He was truly amazing. I have his picture of George Washington kneeling in prayer hanging on my living room wall. Truly he is an inspired genius.

Th. said...

.

Perhaps my favorite of his is of the ship Brooklyn.

He brought class to the Church's clipart.

nephite blood spartan heart said...

Lisa-he was amazing, i couldn't evenbegin to showcase everything here.

Th-Amen to that (clipart), I'll have to go find that one, I don't recall seeing it.

Carolina M. Valdez Schneider said...

Such fine art. Utterly astounding, especially for someone like me, whose stick figures need labels. I'm sorry you never had him do your cover art :(

melissa said...

Hey I just wanted to say hi and I like your blog. I'm a new author and I'm discovering that I love having this creative outlet. I'm now a follower here and will be back for updates. :-)

nephite blood spartan heart said...

Thanks Carolina, it might have been a bit much to hope he could do a cover for me, the man has painted the Queen of England.

Hi Melissa, good to meet you.

Mary Gray said...

I didn't know he passed away. I've always loved Moroni's Title of Liberty pic, Abanidi, and George Washington praying.

Andrea said...

It really shocked me when I heard he'd passed away. Like Lisa, we have the George Washington picture hanging on our living room wall.

Hope you're having a great day - seems like we haven't had any good chats lately. Course, that's mostly my own fault. Still trying to come out of my shell. :-)

And thanks for the post.

Karen Jones Gowen said...

I did not know that he had died. Thanks for the review of his artwork and for sharing your feelings about this gifted artist.

nephite blood spartan heart said...

Mary-I had most of those on my bedroom walss when I was a kid, now they are on the office walls.

Andrea-strangely thats the one I don't have-but I do want to get it.

Karen-he'll be missed.

Kathi Oram Peterson said...

I love Friberg's art! I had his picture of Helaman and the Stripling Warriors on my wall as I wrote The Forgotten Warrior and the sequel. Very inspiring.

Did you see his George Washington painting at the capitol during the Olympics? It was awesome. You could almost see the steam coming from the horse's nose.

Such a talent. He will be missed!

nephite blood spartan heart said...

Thanks Kathi, he was a magnificent talent.

Paul R. McNamee said...

Great stuff. Thanks for the elucidation.

nephite blood spartan heart said...

I appreciate it Paul.

Charles Gramlich said...

Amazing work. I'm very sorry to hear this. This stuff is tremendous.

nephite blood spartan heart said...

Charles-thanks, now I have to be on the lookout for new favorites.

Stewart Sternberg (half of L.P. Styles) said...

Thank you for displaying this artwork. I will look elsewhere for more of his art, he has a quality which is at once inspires nostalgia and introspection.

Tristi Pinkston said...

He will definitely be missed. He was legendary.

nephite blood spartan heart said...

Thank you for dropping by Stewart.

Absolutely Tristi.

Heather Moore said...

All great art :)

nephite blood spartan heart said...

Thanks Heather, he truly defined the iconic look.

LoneIslander said...

A sad day indeed. His works look amazing.

nephite blood spartan heart said...

Thanks for dropping by Loneislander-and to Paladin for the recent shoutout.