Virtual Art Tour

Jack Barrett, American, born 1929

Patriarch of a Dysfunctional Family

“I draw and paint because I must. It is all consuming, a compulsion,” St. Petersburg, Fla. resident Jack Barrett has said. “The artist is best served by a study of past traditions and disciplines . . . .”

Born in Pittsburgh, Barrett has been drawing since the age of seven. He attended the Carnegie Institute in a special program for artistic youngsters and graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 1955.

His diversified body of work includes news feature illustration, sports cartoons, political caricatures, show business portraits, humorous art, as well as serious painting for various agencies, art studios, newspapers and magazines. He has included worked for the Mel Richman Advertising Agency in Philadelphia, King and Mayfair magazines in London, Rogue and Cracked magazines in the U.S., the Congressional Quarterly and the St. Petersburg Times. His artistic endeavors include one movie credit for his portrayal of one of the living dead in Night of the Living Dead.

During the late 1960s, Barrett taught art at the Ivy School of Art and, while there, wrote two books of cartoons, Hands Down andLaxative. His awards include first place for satirical art from the Pittsburgh Advertising Artists in 1959, first and third place in newspaper illustration for the St. Petersburg Times in 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1975, and first place in the Florida Newspaper Illustrations and Cartoonist Contest, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications in 1974 and 1985.