Jimmy Pike

Aboriginal artist Jimmy Pike lived in a bush camp on the edge of the remote Great Sandy Desert of north Western Australia where he painted, producing art for which he has become so renowned. Born in 1940, in remote sandhill country, Jimmy was a member of the Walmajarri people, one of the last groups to leave the desert and settle on cattle stations in the Kimberley during the 1950’s.

He spent his childhood as a nomad moving with his family around the various waterholes that were the focal points of their arid country. This country, its ancient culture and symbols are the things that inspired Jimmy Pike’s work.

For many years Jimmy Pike supplemented his earnings by carving and selling artifacts. It wasn’t until 1981 that he was first introduced to Western style painting and discovered his talent for art. A few years later he set up his isolated camp in the desert where he painted until his death in 2002. He worked in the open, resting his paintings on a rough work table he made from old planks. He stored his art and other materials under a heavy canvas fly, where he also took refuge from the rare seasonal falls of rain.

Jimmy Pike’s paintings of the physical and spiritual quality of his traditional Walmajarri country have added a new dynamic to the central positions of landscape in Australian art. They give a new dimension to our understanding of connections of place and identity. The artist’s themes of the intricacies of desert landscape, the visual character of the changing seasons and the particulars of its Aboriginal spirituality have transformed this extremely isolated area of the northern part of Australia into a tangible experience and affords the viewer a rare encounter with its beauty and sacredness. Jimmy Pike is one of Australia’s most famous Aboriginal artists. He is represented in the collections of all the major Australian public galleries and museums.



Subjects and Themes

Men chained, rainbow serpent

Collections

Australian Museum, Sydney

Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney

Art Gallery of SA, Adelaide

Art Gallery of WA, Perth

Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide

Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Surfers Paradise, Qld

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour, Sydney

Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra

Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth

BHP Collection

Christensen fund Collection

Oodgeroo Collection

Qld University of Technology Collection

EXHIBITIONS

Individual Exhibitions

1985 Aboriginal Artists Gallery, Melbourne

1986 Aboriginal Artists Gallery, Sydney

1986 Black Swan Gallery, Fremantle

1987 Ben Grady Gallery, Canberra

1987 Tynte Gallery, Adelaide

1987 Craft Centre Gallery, Sydney

1987 Seibu Shibuya, Tokyo

1988 Birukmarri Gallery, Fremantle

1988 Capricorn Gallery, Port Douglas

1988 Tynte Gallery, Adelaide

1988 Blaxland Gallery, Sydney and Melbourne

1991 Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London

Group Exhibitions

1984 Her Majesty’s Theatre, Perth

1985 Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Praxis, Fremantle

1987 Print Council Gallery, Melbourne

1987 Recent Aboriginal Art of WA, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

1987 The Fourt National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the NT, Darwin

1987 Galerie Exler, Frankfurt

1987 Art and Aboriginality, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, UK

1988 Addendum Gallery, Fremantle

1998 Australian Aboriginal Graphics from the Collection of the Flinders University Art Museum

1989 Prints by Seven Australian Aboriginal Artists, International Touring Exhibition through the Print Council and Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade

1998 Aboriginal Art, The Continuing Tradition, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

1990 i’ete Australien a’ Montpellier, Musee Fabre Gallery, Montpeliler, France

1990 Balance 1990: Views, Visions, Influences, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

1990 Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Harvard University, University of Minnesota, Lake Oswego Centre for the Arts, USA

1990 Tagari Lia, My Family, Contemporary Aboriginal Art from Australia, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, UK

1991 Flash Pictures, National Gallery of Australia

1991 The Eighth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.V 1992 Working in the Round, Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide

1992 Crossroads - Towards a New Reality, Aboriginal Art from Australia, National Museums of Art, Koyoto and Tokyo.

1992 The Ninth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin

1992 Kimberley Creations, Broome, WA

1992/3 New Tracks Old Land: An Exhibition of Contemporary Prints from Aboriginal Australia, Touring USA and Australia

1993 The Tenth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin

1993 Galerie im Vinyard, Berlin

1994 New Tracks, Old Land Touring USA

1994 Contemporary Visions, Melbourne

1994 Artmove Claremont

1995 Art Gallery of WA, Major Retrospective

1996 NATSI Art Award, NTMG, Darwin

1996 Friendship Gallery Hefei, People’s Republic of China

1997 Durack Gallery, Broome

1997 Fireworks Gallery Brisbane

1997 Framed Gallery Darwin

1998 Rebecca Hossack Gallery London

1999 National Gallery of China Beijing

1999 NATSI Art Award, NTMG. Darwin

2000 Japingka Gallery, Perth

Bibliography

Aboriginal Artists of Western Australia, (n.d) (folios of works and biographies), Aboriginal Education Resources Unit, Western Australia

Aboriginal Arts Management Association, 1990, Contemporary Aboriginal Art 1990 - from Australia (presented by the Aboriginal Arts Committee, Australia Council and Third Eye Centre, Glasgow), exhib. cat., Redfern

1988, Jimmy Pike Graphics from the Christensen Fund Collection, exhib. cat., Christensen Fund, Perth (C)

Butler, R., 1986, From dreamtime to machine time, Imprint 21(3-4), 11 (C)

Caruana, W., 1987, Australian Aboriginal Art, a Souvenir Book of Aboriginal Art in the Australian National Gallery, Australian National Gallery, Parkes, Australian Capital Territory (C)

Caruana, W., 1993, Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, London (C)

Crossman, S. and Barou, J-P. (eds), 1990, L’ete Australien a Montpellier: 100 Chefs d’Oevre de la Peinture Australienne, MuseeFabre, Montpellier, France. (C)

Cochrane, G., 1992, The Crafts Movement in Australia: a History, New South Wales University Press, Kensington, New South Wales (C)

Chanin, E., 1990, (ed.), Contemporary Australian Painting, Craftsman House, Roseville, NSW, Australia

Davis, J., (ed.), 1990, Paperbark: A Collection of Black Australian Writings, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia

Hill, M., and McLeod, N.,1984, From the Ochres of Mungo, Aboriginal Art Today, Dorr McLeod Publishing, West Heidleberg, Victoria (C)

Isaacs, J., 1989, Aboriginality: Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings and Prints, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Queensland (C)

Johnson, V., 1987, Art and Aboriginality, exhib. cat., Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth

Langton, M., 1992-93, The two women looked back over their shoulders & lamented leaving their country: detached comment (recent urban) & symbolic narrative (traditional), Aboriginal Art in the Public Eye, Art Monthly Australia Supplement, 7-9 (C)

Lowe P.Pike J. Jilji Magabala Books 1990

Lowe P.Pike J. Yinti Magabala Books 1992

Lowe P.Pike J.Desert Dog Magabala Books 1997

Lowe P.Pike J.Jimmy & Pat Meet the Queen Magabala Books 1999

McCulloch, A., & McCulloch, S., 1994, The Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd, St Leonards, New South Wales

Perkins H. Beyond the Year of Indigenous Peoples, in Art and Australia 1993 Vol. 31 No 1 p 98-101

Ryan, J., 1993, Images of Power, Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, exhib, cat., National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Wallace, D., Desmond, M., Caruana, W., 1991, Flash Pictures, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

1990, Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, exhib. cat., Heytesbury Holdings Ltd., Perth

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