Mention the name Arnold Friberg and most Utahns immediately think of his paintings of "Book of Mormon" scenes and for the movie "The Ten Commandments."
But Friberg is much more versatile than that. In many parts of the world he is better known for his portraits, his Western art, his football game paintings and/or his portrayals of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police."I've always done a variety of subject matter," Friberg said. "I didn't want to be known strictly as a religious or Western artist."
In fact, last month the mayor of Pine River, Minn., declared July 29 Arnold Friberg Day. The community focused its attention on Friberg's Mountie paintings. Hovey's Studio and Gallery in Pine River is the only source of Friberg's limited edition prints in that state.
The following day, Friberg was honored at a reception in the Tweed Museum at the University of Minnesota in Duluth, where 50 of his heroic Canadian Mountie paintings are being exhibited through Aug. 27. Then they will travel to other museums and galleries across the United States and Canada.
It was an exciting moment for Friberg. People came from far and near to meet the artist. One museum guard commented that he had never seen so many people at a reception at the Tweed.
Leo Hovey, owner of the gallery in Pine River, said Friberg was pinned against the wall by admirers and autograph seekers. And crews from two television stations had a difficult time penetrating the "human wall" to interview him.
For the first time, Friberg was able to see 40 of his paintings of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police hanging together in the museum. He said it had a profound impact on him.
In remembering the experience, he said, "I honestly can say that this is the only time I know of that a whole series of paintings done as advertising have been exhibited in an art museum."
Friberg's art career was far from ending when he completed the Mountie series in 1970. Since that time, he has continued to produce even greater and more significant paintings. Among them are the Bicentennial masterpiece of George Washington in "Prayer at Valley Forge"; the royal portrait, "His Royal Highness Prince Charles with the Horse Centennial"; and Joseph Smith in "The Prayer in the Grove."
Over the years, he has also completed about 40 monumental Western paintings, many of which have been sold through the Husberg Fine Arts Gallery in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Although 76 years old, Friberg shows no sign of tiring or retiring, even though he says he spends more time working on each painting. He paints from dawn to dark in his Holladay studio, "using all the daylight I can." He says that when an artist works under artificial light, colors are not the same.
Friberg is very aware that his painting career won't last forever.
"Now, if I do a canoe picture, I tell myself it might be the last canoe I do. So there's the challenge; it must be the very best canoe I can paint."
Visions of religious and patriotic themes continue to fill Friberg's mind. "It's very painful to know what I can do and not be able to do it. It's like letting go of a dream."
But the world can't help but admire the dreams he has already brought to life.
Why? Maybe Friberg pinpointed the reason when he said, "I paint for people, and people respond to it. I have great faith in the average man - the guy down the street. I like to think that my paintings speak right to their hearts. I hope the day never comes when my paintings have to be explained."
Many art critics and art connoiseurs have stood in front of Friberg's masterpiece of George Washington praying at Valley Forge. Some admired the work; a few critized it. But none of them really caught the painting's message better than a lowly guard who walked up to the painting after the VIPs had gone. He took a long look and said, "I can feel the prayer in his hands."
Friberg art has helped rekindle patriotism, breathe life into Bible and Book of Mormon characters and make more powerful the life of Christ. As people look upon these pictures, they do not see art alone; they are looking upon - and experiencing - history itself.