Arnold Friberg passed away a few weeks ago. He was 97. I always appreciated his pictures in the Book of Mormon. Those same paintings resonated with the spirit of God as they did for me when I was a little girl which says something in itself of him as an individual and of the art that he did his best to convey to the observer. Of course, as with most art, some of it was directed more at an ideal using contemporary stylization rather than of the actual historical events being portrayed, but as with those depictions, the spirit conveys the realities better than what actually did happen for those he is talking to. I loved looking at the bulging muscles of the stripling warriors and of the handsome and beautiful people portrayed in the paintings. They looked invincible.
Click here to see his art work and to remember the paintings he created that helped bring the Book of Mormon stories to life. Arnold Friberg's now-iconic Book of Mormon paintings are the pictures mostt of us have grown up with. They are now on permanent display in the LDS Church Conference Center in Salt Lake City, meaning you can see them for free year round.
At his funeral, Elder Hales, a longtime friend of Friberg's, shared the spiritual power of both the man and his work.
"For me, Arnold was a seer in the purest sense of the word, with the ability to look into the past and observe spiritual experiences," he said. "Arnold knew how to reach the soul. It was a gift given to him by God."
1 comment:
I also loved the Book of Mormon pictures and the one of Washington at Valley Forge. He was quite an artist.
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