Jimmy Pike

On the evening before we took off on our holidays we saw the Jimmy Pike exhibition You call it desert, we used to live there at the Albany Museum. It was a set of about fifty artline drawings from the Berndt Museum of Anthropology collection chosen from about 250 drawings in total. The Berndt Museum, part of the University of Western Australia, holds collections of Aboriginal art and cultural materials as well as items from Melanesia, and South East Asia.

This exhibition was timely for us as we are heading up that way as I type this now.

Pike's works were extremely bold and colourful. I was particularly taken by his vibrant flower drawings.

Partiri (flowers)

Partiri (flowers)

Kakarra, Karla,Kayili, Kurlurla
Sunshine on one side, other side dark  

He also painted his traditional country. The image above is sand dune country showing the strong light and shadows that are present there.

Some of his drawings were of traditional cultural stories and he also drew stories from his own life.

Dreamtime story

Headband

Having an Xray

Wirl (Falling star)

Apparently Pike was hit and knocked out by a falling star as a young boy. A strong medicine man revived him. Because of this Pike often drew falling stars and stars as they were an important symbol to him. 

Pike, a member of the Walmajarri people, was born on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert in 1940. He lived a nomadic life with his family until they left the desert to settle on cattle stations in the early 1950's. He was introduced to Western style painting in 1981 and continued to paint until his death in 2002.

Link to a virtual tour of the exhibition here.