Friberg, Arnold, 1913-2010

Arnold Friberg (1913-2010) was a famous Mormon artist.

Arnold Friberg was born December 21, 1913 in Illinois to Sven Friberg and Ingeborg Solberg Friberg. He moved with his family to Arizona when he was three years old, where his family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He began as a painting apprentice at the age of 13. After high school, Friberg attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, after which he moved to New York, where he studied at the Grand Central School of Art and worked for advertising agencies and painted covers for The Saturday Evening Post and other magazines. He was drafted into the Army during World War II and was asked to work as an artist with the rank of captain. Instead he chose to go into the infantry as an enlisted man. He served in Europe and in the Pacific. He married Hedve Mae Baxter, who died in 1986, and then remarried Heidi Miller Grosskopf in 1989. He had four children (two of which were step-children.)

From early in his career, Friberg was a well-known artist. He received commissions from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to paint images for them, as well as receiving a commission from Cecil B. DeMille to paint advertising images for The Ten Commandments. He is well known among the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for painting scenes from the Book of Mormon. His most famous painting is entitled "Prayer at Valley Forge," and depicts George Washington kneeling in prayer.

Friberg died on July 1, 2010 from complications after hip replacement surgery.

Kenneth Cleon Madsen (1927-2002) was an artist and art instructor in Utah.

Kenneth Cleon Madsen was born October 31, 1927 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He served in the United States Navy from 1945 to 1952. On May 27, 1946 he married Ruth Woolf in the Salt Lake Temple, and together they raised five children. Madsen became a well-known Utah artist, and was admired for his many accomplishments. He worked for Famous Artist Schools, the International Exchange School, and the Queen Mary Art College in London, England. In addition to his art career he also served as director of the National Independence Day Festival and Parade.

He died on December 25, 2002.

From the guide to the Kenneth Madsen collection on Arnold Friberg, 1973-1994, (L. Tom Perry Special Collections)