PAINTING
Large, portrait, figurative dot painting in acrylics on Masonite board. The painting has an ochre-coloured background with multiple black dots. A stick figure of a man painted in black in the centre, with pink and white markings on the mid thighs and upper arms, and yellow markings on the torso. A kangaroo and emu are depicted underneath the figure's outstretched arms. Both the emu and kangaroo show elements of 'X-ray' style design, with the skeleton of the emu depicted, and what might be the internal organs of the kangaroo also visible. Multiple black wavy lines, outlined in white, feature in the background of the painting.
This painting can be seen hanging in the Prison's dentist surgery on 24th June 1991 during the 1991 Archival Footage (2019.4 - see 'Records of Social Culture Videotapes', Disc 4, 10.32am). This painting was identified as a possible Jimmy Pike artwork by the Assistant Curator in 2011. Upon further examination, the letters ‘[…]KE’ (possibly the latter part of the word PIKE) were found written on the reverse of the painting in the top righthand corner (see attached image).
Details
Details
Jimmy Pike was a Walmajarri man, born around 1940. He grew up in the sand hills of the Great Sandy Desert, leading a traditionally nomadic life, before beginning work as a stockman on stations in the Kimberley. Pike was convicted of murder in 1980 and sent to Fremantle Prison. It was whilst in prison that Pike began to focus more on producing art.
Making the most of the opportunities offered, Pike worked in the Prison’s different industries, including the Boot Shop and the garden party, and also attended a class in English literacy where he learnt to read and write, before joining the Prison’s art class. Though he had grown up carving designs in wood, these art classes were his first experience of formal tuition. Pike participated in classes run by art teacher Steve Culley, and it was a print making workshop, which Pike didn't actually attend, that was the catalyst for his extraordinary talent to emerge.
The story, as told by Steve Culley, is that despite not attending the print making workshop, which was run by printmaking tutor David Wroth, Pike asked if he could take a stack of blank linoleum blocks back to his cell over the weekend. The artworks he subsequently produced over the next few days had both Steve Culley and David Wroth amazed. In Culley’s own words, this was, “the moment when the genius became absolutely undeniable”. It was from this event that the Desert Designs brand was born. The company, co-founded by Wroth and Culley, used designs created and licensed by Jimmy Pike. The brand heralded the height of the Aboriginal cultural renaissance, bringing Aboriginal design into the households, and wardrobes, of thousands of white, urban Australians.
Upon his release from Fremantle Prison in 1986, Pike spent his parole years living in the Great Sandy Desert with his partner Pat Lowe, a former prison psychologist. He continued to draw and paint, and produce work for the Desert Designs label. He died in 2002 after suffering a heart attack.
