KunstenaarSwedish
Roj Friberg
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Roj Friberg was born on 28 July 1934 in Bäve parish outside Uddevalla on the Swedish west coast. He trained at Slöjdföreningens Skola in Gothenburg from 1956 to 1957, then continued at the Valand School of Fine Art from 1960 to 1964, where he developed the disciplined technical sensibility that would define his practice for six decades.
Friberg's distinctive contribution to Swedish graphic art came through a technique he called lacklaveringen, a process of scratching through a thin, semi-dry layer of lacquer with a needle and then glazing the surface with pigment mixtures. The method produced images with a particular quality: reality-grounded but suspended in a kind of lucid stillness, detailed without being stiff. He also worked with dental drills and other unconventional instruments to achieve textures unavailable through standard printmaking tools.
In the 1960s he appeared in Swedish public life as a protest artist, using his drawings to challenge politicians and engage with environmental questions. Through the 1980s his palette opened up significantly, and color became more central to his work. He moved fluidly across painting, drawing, and graphic techniques, rarely settling into a single medium, which made him difficult to categorize and easy to underestimate.
Parallel to his studio practice, Friberg built a significant career in scenography. He collaborated with director Alf Sjöberg on Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz's play "Modern" in 1971, and designed sets for Cullberg Ballet's "Krigsdans i aftonlandet" in 1979. He also created scenography for "Medea" at the Royal Opera in Stockholm and in Sydney. This theatrical work was not a side activity but an extension of the same spatial and compositional thinking that structured his paintings and graphics.
Sveriges Allmänna Konstförening dedicated its 2010 yearbook to his work, a recognition that situated him firmly within the Swedish cultural canon. He is represented in the collections of Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Moderna Museet, Kalmar Art Museum, Norrköping Art Museum, and several regional museums. He was married from 1966 until his death to the artist Lena Permér. He died on 30 September 2016 in Veddige, Halland.
At auction, Friberg's work appears regularly across Swedish houses, with pencil drawings and lithographs dominating the market. His pencil work "Björkdunge" reached 15,500 SEK at Göteborgs Auktionsverk, his strongest recorded result in the Auctionist database, while lithographs trade in the 1,200–1,600 SEK range. Bukowskis and Göteborgs Auktionsverk have been the primary venues for his work.