Joseph Friebert
American, 1908 - 20023rd and Center, 1938
Not on view
Oil on Masonite
Dimensions22 × 27 in. (55.9 × 68.6 cm)
Courtesy of the Isabel Foundation, Inlander Collection, L2003.71
This painting depicts a winter street scene viewed from the artist’s studio in a corner building on the north side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Joseph Friebert was born in Buffalo, New York in l908, and at age three moved with his family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In l927 he began studying pharmacy and became a fully registered pharmacist in 1930. His passion, however, was art. Friebert began to exhibit his work in l935. He won his first award two years later and in l938 he was selected as one of nineteen Milwaukee artists to be included in the Great Lakes Exhibition of l938-39. In l945, Friebert graduated from Milwaukee State Teachers College, left the field of pharmacy and began teaching art at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, where he was employed from l946 until his retirement in l976.
In l956, his work was included in the American pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Friebert's art reflected the Depression era's concern for the modern human condition. The figures in his dimly lit compositions seem stoic and even melancholy. To enhance the pensive mood expressed in his work, Friebert developed a form of "indirect painting" in which images are built up in successive layers of thin under paint used in combination with glaze and varnish applications. During his long career Friebert made paintings, prints, sculptures, and murals.
