By Chauntelle Plewe
LOGAN -- Arnold Friberg, the LDS painter of 'The Book of Mormon' illustrations, is making a rare appearance to speak about his work on 'The Ten Commandments' Friday, July 11, in Logan.
'He''s a modern master, his work has touched so many lives,' said Rose Bonnell, a lifelong Friberg fan who voluntarily publicized the event.
Friberg, 89 years old, rarely speaks publicly but decided to speak at this event when he visited the theater holding the event. The theater was recently restored to its original 1930 form, said Michael Bingham, owner of Paint Utah Art School and Gallery, hosting the event.
He doesn''t do this sort of thing, Bingham said. The last time he can remember Friberg doing an event like this was about thirteen years ago, he said.
Along with Friberg''s speech, his original paintings are displayed and 'The Ten Commandments' will show in the Ellen Eccles Theater, which premiered the movie in 1956.
Cecil B. DeMille saw Friberg''s 'Book of Mormon' illustrations and asked him to paint for his epic movie 'The Ten Commandments.'
Of all the projects he''s done, Friberg has said 'The Ten Commandments' was the highlight of his life, Bingham said.
Friberg got emotional when talking about this project in a small lecture that Bingham attended a couple years ago. As he looked back at the body of his work, he didn''t know how he was physically able to do it all, Bingham said.
Friberg researched for about a year, and the project took about four years, said Kendall Dickson, national sales director and special events coordinator for Arnold Friberg.
Bingham, an artist himself, said he organized this event because when he met and was inspired by Friberg, he knew that others would want to meet this humble man who has done so much with his talent.
'It''s not everyday you get to work with your hero,' Bingham said.
Students studying story telling in any form can learn from the master, Bingham said. Friberg''s full-detail oil paintings served as designs for costumes, props, sets, and lighting, a job usually done by crews of people.
'DeMille did motion picture, so to get the opulence, everything was constantly moving, where the pictures from the artist is something different,' Dickson said. 'You''re capturing just a brief millisecond in the movie and you''re stopping it and putting it in art. The art depicts the movie, almost in a grander scale.'
Ten of Friberg''s fifteen paintings are displayed in the theater gallery during the event. Friberg also painted rarely seen portraits of stars, all of which will be in the gallery. Portraits of Charlton Heston''s aging-process as Moses is a special feature.
His attention to historical and cultural detail added a lot to the design of the movie. In the scene where Moses parts the Red Sea, Friberg included 1,000 people in full detail with flags, costumes, wagons, and natural landscape.
'It''ll be really fun to see the original painting and walk a few steps and see the movie inspired by the paintings,' Bingham said.
DeMille and Friberg designed 'The Ten Commandments' to be seen on the big screen, but few people have seen it that way. People can now see it the way it was intended, Bingham said.
'This tells one of the greatest stories in the history of man, told by the two greatest story tellers of all time,' Bingham said.
Friberg''s lecture is today at 2 p.m. Showings of 'The Ten Commandments,' with an introduction by Friberg, are today at 7 p.m. and Friday at 1 p.m. The Ellen Eccles Theater is at 43 South Main Street in Logan. For information see paintutah.com.