The Jimmy Pike collection

Jimmy Pike
Contemporary artist

Jimmy Pike (approximately 1940-2002) was a Walmajarri man of the Great Sandy Desert and prolific artist intent on sharing his knowledge and love of his desert home.

In the 1980s, Pike’s innovative use of bold bright colours stood in contrast to the dominant forms of Aboriginal art of the time; the ochre toned bark and canvas paintings from Arnhem Land and Central Australia.

Pike was also a trailblazer in the promotion of his art internationally. His imagery licensed to Desert Designs, became a fashion sensation not only in Australia but also in Japan, America and Europe.

With his British born wife and collaborator, Pat Lowe, Pike co-authored and illustrated a number of publications including Yinti (1992), a fictionalised account of Pike’s life as child growing up in Great Sandy Desert. Pike’s family was one of the last groups to move out of the desert, settling at Cherrabun station in the Kimberley region in the mid-1950s. As a young man, Pike saw windmills, car tracks and other signs of European settlement for the very first time, on cattle station country. The collection includes drawings with recollections of this period.

Untitled (Animals and Figures) painting

Jimmy

Rockhole desert country

Windmill

Untitled (cars)

Untitled (cars)

Body painting, Purnara