Skip to content

Selected exhibitions

Selected Exhibitions

All locations are in Milwaukee unless noted otherwise.

One-, Two-, and Three-Person Exhibitions

1944
Layton Art Gallery, “Joseph Friebert, Alfred Sessler, Santos Zingale”

1946
Art Students League, Milwaukee State Teachers College, “Paintings and Drawings by Joseph Friebert”

1948
Riccardo’s, Chicago, “Riccardo Presents Paintings by Joseph Friebert” (brochure)

1949
Milwaukee Jewish Community Center; Milwaukee Art Institute

1956
Milwaukee Art Institute, “Paintings: Joseph Friebert / Fred Berman” (brochure)

1958
Milwaukee Journal Gallery of Wisconsin Art, “Journal Square in Retrospect: Exhibit of Oil Paintings by Joseph Friebert”

1960
Milwaukee Art Center, “Wisconsin Artist Joseph Friebert” (brochure, with statement by the artist)

1964
Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin

1969
Fine Arts Galleries, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, “Four Decades of Painting by Joseph Friebert” (brochure, with text by Howard C. Schroedter)

1977
Fine Arts Galleries, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, “George Goundie: Sculpture / Joseph Friebert: Paintings” (catalogue, with texts by John Lloyd Taylor and Howard C. Schroedter)

Rahr-West Museum, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, “The Art of Joseph Friebert” (brochure)

1984
Charles Allis Art Museum, “Joseph Friebert / Betsy Ritz: Works on Paper of the 1930s” (brochure, with text by John Lofton)

1989
Milwaukee Art Museum, “Joseph Friebert: Selected Works” (catalogue by Dean Sobel)

1997
Temple Emanu-El B’ne Jeshuren, “Joseph Friebert, Adolph Rosenblatt”

1998
Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, “Joseph Friebert at Ninety” (catalogue by Curtis Carter)

2000
Studio 613, “Joseph Friebert, Betsy Ritz Friebert, and Judith Friebert, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, 1930s–1999”

2003
Mary Nohl Galleries, School of Fine Arts, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, “An Artful Marriage: Works on Paper by Joseph Friebert and Betsy Ritz Friebert” (brochure by Susan Friebert Rossen)

2006–2007
Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, “Joseph Friebert, Fred Berman, & the Milwaukee Scene, 1935–65” (catalogue by John Corbett)

2008
Museum of Wisconsin Art, West Bend, Wisconsin, “Joseph Friebert”

Inova/Arts Center, Peck School of the Arts, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, “Drawing Influence: Joseph Friebert and His Students” (brochure, with text by Nathan Guequierre).

2009
Northwestern Mutual Art Gallery, Cardinal Stritch University, “Joseph Friebert Centennial Exhibition: Wisconsin Landscapes” (brochure, with text by Nathan Guequierre)

2017
Cedarburg Art Museum, Cedarburg, Wisconsin, “Joseph Friebert: Through the Years, 1945–2000”

2018
“The Artwork of Joseph Friebert,” Wriston Art Center Galleries, Lawrence University, Appleton

“Joseph Friebert: A Life in Art,” Museum of Wisconsin Art, West Bend (catalogue by Susan Friebert Rossen et al.)

Selected Group Exhibitions

1935–64
Wisconsin Salon of Art, Memorial Union, University of Wisconsin-Madison (fifteen exhibitions and three awards) (catalogues)

1936–64
Annual Exhibition of Wisconsin Painters and Sculptors, Milwaukee Art Institute (Milwaukee Art Center; Milwaukee Art Museum) (twelve exhibitions and four awards) (catalogues mostly published as issues of the Art Institute’s Bulletin)

1937–60
American Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago (four exhibitions) (catalogues)

1938–39
Great Lakes Exhibition (catalogue) (traveled)

1938–54
Artists of Chicago and Vicinity Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago (twelve exhibitions, four awards) (catalogues)

1938–58
Annual Wisconsin State Fair Festival of Arts Exhibition, West Allis, Wisconsin (thirteen exhibitions and ten awards)

1940
Midwestern Artists Exhibition, Kansas City (Missouri) Art Institute (catalogue)

1940–59
Illinois State Fair, Springfield (six exhibitions and three prizes)

1941
Carnegie International Exhibition, Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (catalogue)

1943
Renaissance Society, Chicago, “Artists from Milwaukee”

1947–53
Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (three exhibitions) (catalogues)

1947–62
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota (seven exhibitions and two prizes) (catalogues) (some shows traveled)

1948–52
Gimbel’s Centennial Collection Exhibitions (five exhibitions and three prizes) (catalogues)

1950
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, “American Painting Today: 1950” (catalogue)

1954
Birmingham (Alabama) Museum of Art, Birmingham “Steel, Iron, and Men” (traveled)

1955–56
Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (catalogue)

1956
American Pavilion, 28th Venice Biennale, “American Artists Paint the City” (catalogue by Katharine Kuh, with foreword by Leonardo Venturi)

1958
Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York

1959
Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (catalogue)

1963
Sixty-Ninth Western Annual, Denver (Colorado) Art Museum

1965
Burpee Art Museum, Rockford, Illinois, “Fifty States of Art” (Friebert represents Wisconsin) (catalogue) (traveled)

1985
Wichita (Kansas) Art Museum, “American Art of the Great Depression: Two Sides of the Coin” (catalogue by Howard E. Wooden)

1992–93
Milwaukee Art Museum, “A Breath of Vision: The Ritz Collection” (catalogue by Russell Bowman and David Morgan)

1993
Milwaukee Art Museum, “The Jewish Contribution in Twentieth Century Art” (catalogue, with texts by Tom L. Freudenheim and Tom Bamberger)

1994
Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, “Wisconsin Artists: A Celebration of Jewish Presence” (catalogue by Curtis L. Carter and Johann J. K. Reusch)

1996–97
Charles Allis Art Museum, “Self Portraits: Wisconsin Artists” (catalogue)

Flint (Michigan) Institute of Arts, “Painters of the Great Lakes Scene” (catalogue by Michael D. Hall) (traveled)

1998
Milwaukee Art Museum, “100 Years of Wisconsin Art” (catalogue, with text by Janet Treacy and Dean Sobel)

1998–99
Elvehjem Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin, “150 Years of Wisconsin Printmaking” (catalogue by Andrew Stevens)

2012
Art History Gallery, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, “Wisconsin Masters: An Artistic Legacy, 1900–1970” (catalogue)

2014
Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, “Art Work: Art and Labor” (catalogue by Branden Ruud et al.).

2015
Jewish Museum Milwaukee, “Founders and Visionaries: Wisconsin Jewish Artists from the Milwaukee Art Museum: Fred Berman, Aaron Bohrod, Joseph Friebert, Alfred A. Sessler”

2017
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, “Mining Pictures: Stories from Above and Below Ground”

2018
Cedarburg (Wisconsin) Art Museum, “Wisconsin Modernists: Rebels from Regionalism” (catalogue by Mary Chemotti)

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, “Unexpected Encounters: Recent Gifts”

Three Milwaukee galleries handled Friebert’s work, organizing between them more than one dozen solo shows and including his work in multiple group exhibitions. Friebert’s first dealer was Dorothy Bradley, who ran the Bradley Galleries from 1965 until her death in 1991. Between 1994 and 1997, Friebert was at the Galleria Del Conte. Finally, the Elaine Erickson Gallery represented him from 1997 until it closed in 2015.

Back to topBack to top arrow