JACK BARKLA
Jack is one of the most prolific artists in Minnesota History that you don’t know. That’s because Jack has been working behind the scenes literally creating the scenes for all your favorite venues, events and productions. They call him Mr. Christmas. The Wizard. Someone who can create something astounding out of nothing, according to Minneapolis playwright Barbara Field. A stage designer who has worked on just about every major stage in the Twin Cities beginning in the 1960s, Jack Barkla spent decades creating magic and illusion for Minnesota audiences.
After studying art education at the University of Minnesota in the 1960s, Barkla picked up a part-time job at Dayton’s, painting scenery and backdrops for $1.25 an hour—a wage he thought was “pretty decent” at the time. By 1973, Barkla was in charge of designing the sets for the eighth-floor show. His first complete show was “The Nutcracker.” He chose to design that show in the style of architecture he had seen in Nuremberg, Germany, while studying opera at the Bayreuth Festival Master Classes in Germany in 1967.
Barkla returned to Minnesota after that summer in Germany, left his graduate studies, and soon was hired at the Children’s Theatre, then the Guthrie. Over the next three decades, he often had his hands in multiple productions at multiple venues at the same time—and always the Dayton’s eighth-floor Christmas and flower shows, fashion shows, and other special exhibits.
In December 1977, a writer for Mpls. magazine estimated that some five hundred thousand people would see Barkla’s work that month alone. At the time, he was knee-deep in designing sets for multiple shows. Barkla had created the set for the Guthrie Theater’s A Christmas Carol and Minnesota Dance Theatre’s Nutcracker Fantasy. His original designs were the foundation for that season’s new production of The Little Match Girl at the Children’s Theatre Company. He was also designed Dr. Seuss’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” the eighth-floor holiday show at Dayton’s downtown Minneapolis store that year. It was his fifth year designing the eighth-floor shows, which he continued for years.
When Minnesota governor Rudy Perpich declared December 7, 1989, Jack Barkla Day, the man had more than 1,400 theatrical sets to his credit, and that didn’t include his commercial work at the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Renaissance Festival in Shakopee, St. Paul’s Regions Hospital lobby, and the Festival of Nations, in addition to his work as production designer for several Super Bowl halftime shows, to name a few.
Among his many prized possessions is a framed note from Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss), who said Barkla’s work on the Children’s Theatre production of The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins made him cry. “[Theater is] a group art form, and it’s an act of love, to care so much about doing work that is done for other people,” he said.
For purchase inquiries, email greg@hennesart.com.
1, 2, 0, 8
26” x 22”
$1100
2 Stegosauruses
21” x 18”
$550
Abstract Eye
15” x 15”
$680
Banana Split Pants
36” x 30”
$1,100
Black & White Sketch i
22” x 26”
$550
Cloaked Individuals
25” x 19”
$800
Cubist Figures
24” x 24”
$1,600
FIG 389
11” x 9”
$800
Fruit on a Pillow
14” x 18”
$950
Grasshopper
30” x 24”
$1,100
House on the Hill
24” x 20”
$950
Lights in the Dark Abstract
37” x 25”
$1,600
Male Figure Backside Sketch
15” x 10”
$550
Male Figure Leaning
14” x 14”
$800
Male Figure Sitting VI
20” x 16”
$550
Maroon & Gold Abstract
40” x 27”
$950
Man in Window
16” x 13”
$1,100
Nude Male 1963
20'“ x 16”
$1,200
Pencil and Ink Sketches - Small
11” x 14”
$275
Republican Hotel
21” x 21”
$950
Shapes in the Dark
28” x 22”
$1,100
Slide Painting for "Arthor" - CTC '85
20” x 20”
$950
Strap Study - teardrop
16” x 16”
$680
Strap Study - circle
16” x 16”
$680
Title: 2.85
31” x 23”
$1,100
White Stairs with Red Cross
21” x 17”
$950
1, 4, 0, 7, 9
23” x 19”
$1050
2 Triceratops
21” x 18”
$550
Abstract Shapes
24” x 24”
$1,100
Bead Escape
11” x 13”
$550
Black & White Sketch ii
22” x 26”
$550
Cactus Pot
26” x 22”
$950
Colorful Abstract
37” x 37”
$1,250
Dark Primaries Abstract
20” x 16”
$950
Female Figure I
17” x 14”
$300
Flower Vase
16” x 13”
$680
Fruit on White Linen
12” x 20”
$800
Green Drip
18” x 15”
$1,600
Intersection Abstract
20” x 16”
$800
Lonely Dreamer
26” x 22”
$950
Male Figure Full Frontal
18” x 12”
$1,350
Male Figure Sitting
17” x 13”
$550
Male Figure Sketch
22” x 18”
$750
Maroon & Gold Curtain
12” x 10”
$680
Nude Study A
14” x 12”
$750
Pond Petunia Pedestal Pig
21” x 18”
$750
Russian Dance No. 2
26” x 22”
$1,100
Skinny Abstract
19” x 10”
$550
Small Draped Study
12” x 6”
$550
Textured Abstract
27” x 23”
$1,200
Too Much "Summer" Thinking (Momentary Beaches)
9” x 11”
$1,200
Wind in the Willows - Rats House
15” x 18”
$950
12 Bar - Alone
21” x 21”
$800
Abstract Trees
22” x 26”
$1,100
Bird Man Warrior
27” x 23”
$1,100
Carmina 1966
15” x 18”
$950
Colorful Crosses
16” x 14”
$680
Doorway in the Rock
14” x 12”
$550
Female Figure II
17” x 14”
$300
Foreign Body
18” x 15”
$680
Geometric Abstract
26” x 22”
$950
Guardian
20” x 16”
$1,100
It Does Not Amuse Me
26” x 22”
$950
Lucky Escape (I've Had, I’m Leaving)
9” x 11”
$550
Male Figure Full Frontal 2
24” x 12”
$1,200
Male Figure Sitting IV
23” x 19”
$800
Male Figure with Halo
38” x 26”
$680
Matted Sketch 1963
14” x 11”
$550
Moon & Stars Black & White
22” X 26”
$500
Nude Study B
14” x 12”
$750
Queens Justice
17” x 13”
$750
Self Portrait of an Elderly Lemon
21” x 18” x 3”
$950
Slate Abstract
18” x 14”
$750
Stacked Colors on Grey Abstract
30” x 18”
$800
The Mercy of not Knowing
20” x 16”
$900
Vase & Floral Linen
14” x 12”
$550
Winter Garden (1st Snow)
15” x 15”
$680
2 Bananas & a Lemon
20” x 16”"
$400
Abstract #7
21” x 18”
$780
Abstract Shapes II
20” x 16”
$680
Bowls of Fruit
16” x 23”
$800
Brown Arches
24” x 20”
$850
Catulli Carmina -
U of M Chorus , MN Orchestra
15” x 19”
$800
Colorful Half CIrcles Abstract
6” x 8”
$275
Crown & Egg
20”X 24”
$880
Egg & Ribbon
23” x 19”
$950
Fiddler on the Roof -
Chanassen Dinner Theatre -
Diorama
$400
Four Drawer Compact
22” x 18”
$550
Gift of the Moon (Presence)
42” x 31”
$1,750
Guthrie Models
(Sold as a Pair)
13” x 11”
$1,100
Larry F.
16” x 8”
$1,600
Male Figure Backside 2
25” x 13”
$1,100
Male Figure Laying Down
30” x 24”
$1,650
Male Figure Sitting V
17” x 13”
$680
Mechanical 69
20” x 20”
$1,600
Olo the Great - Prisoner
30” x 18”
$2,000
Score
26” x 22”
$1,100
Shades of Orange Abstract
20” x 16”
$800
Slide Painting for "Arthor" - CTC '85
20” x 20”
$950
Stairs & Archways Abstract
12” x 12”
$550
This & That Tree in the Lake
18” x 15”
$950
Waiting Room (A Green Room)
23” x 29”
$950
Zigfried
15” x 19”
$800