Joseph Friebert was born in 1908 to Hermine Hahn and Emmanuel Friebert, Austro-Hungarian immigrants, in Buffalo, NY. Friebert grew up in a working class, Jewish family that was committed to social activism. This activism resulted in the family to migrate from city to city, eventually leading them to Milwaukee, WI in 1911. This concern for the modern human condition reflects in his work from the late 1930's and 1940's.

Although Friebert had an affinity for art and a skill for drawing, he pursued a degree in pharmaceuticals at Marquette University - School of Pharmacy and became a registered pharmacist. He does not begin to paint seriously and exhibit his work until the mid 1930's. After attending night classes at the Layton School of Art, Friebert went on to graduate from Milwaukee State Teachers College (later University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee) with a B.S. in art education. Teaching at both Layton School of Art and Milwaukee State Teachers College, Friebert eventually continues his education and receives a M.S. in Art Education from the University of WIsconsin - Madison and eventually becomes full professor of art at University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.

Throughout his teaching career and after his retirement in 1976, Friebert is actively making paintings, prints, and drawings and exhibiting them throughout the United States. After developing a form of "indirect painting" in the 30's and 40's to layer his melancholy and expressive works, he then turns to semiabstraction in the 50's and 60's, exploring urban forms with sharp points of colored lights to shine through heavy applications of pigment - still focusing on the social and political inequities of his time. After the 60's, Friebert loosens his brushwork, brightens his palette, and leans into the lush style that he is known for in his later years. Though he worked less abstractly, he still engaged with his normal subjects, the persecuted, social and political ideals, landscapes, and groups.

Logan Medal, 1952
Ford Foundation Fellowship, 1952-1953
Richard L. Florsheim Grant, 1990
Wisconsin Visual Arts Achievement Award, 2009