Freddie Timms 1946 - 2017
Represented by:
SmithDavidson Gallery
Freddie Timms was born at Police Hole (c.1946-2017), and followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a stockman on Lissadell Station as a young man. After an eventful life on stations throughout the East Kimberley, he settled at Frog Hollow, a small outstation about 20 Km from the newly established community at Warmun, and worked for a time as a gardener at the nascent Argyle Mine.
He began painting in 1986, in the company of elder artists like Rover Thomas and Hector Jandanay, who were already achieving notoriety at this time. Waringarri Arts, in Kununurra, was newly established and Joel Smoker recognized Freddie’s potential in his first distinctive canvasses and noted his confident grasp of the medium from the outset. During the next 25 years, Timms became renowned for depicting sites associated with the displacement of his people and the loss of their country. Yet, rather than overt political statements about the brutality of colonization or the dispossession, his intimate map-like interpretations of country are most commonly rendered with an experiential feel.
Timm’s first exhibition at Deutscher, Gertrude Street, in 1989 received critical acclaim, with his masterpiece ‘Mandangala, North Turkey Creek’. In what appeared as a new and beautiful sense of irregular geometry, soft yet boldly defined blocks of colour depicted the area of Glen Hill and the Argyle Diamond Mine to the north of Turkey Creek. During the mid 1990s, Freddie traveled often with the Kimberley master, Rover Thomas, and he painted a large body of works for Kimberley Art Gallery through its association with the Warmun Community, including two of his most valuable works at auction. Both employ a broader, more colourful palate, than the natural earth pigments widely adopted by other East Kimberley artists.
Visit our website smith-davidson.com for more information.
He began painting in 1986, in the company of elder artists like Rover Thomas and Hector Jandanay, who were already achieving notoriety at this time. Waringarri Arts, in Kununurra, was newly established and Joel Smoker recognized Freddie’s potential in his first distinctive canvasses and noted his confident grasp of the medium from the outset. During the next 25 years, Timms became renowned for depicting sites associated with the displacement of his people and the loss of their country. Yet, rather than overt political statements about the brutality of colonization or the dispossession, his intimate map-like interpretations of country are most commonly rendered with an experiential feel.
Timm’s first exhibition at Deutscher, Gertrude Street, in 1989 received critical acclaim, with his masterpiece ‘Mandangala, North Turkey Creek’. In what appeared as a new and beautiful sense of irregular geometry, soft yet boldly defined blocks of colour depicted the area of Glen Hill and the Argyle Diamond Mine to the north of Turkey Creek. During the mid 1990s, Freddie traveled often with the Kimberley master, Rover Thomas, and he painted a large body of works for Kimberley Art Gallery through its association with the Warmun Community, including two of his most valuable works at auction. Both employ a broader, more colourful palate, than the natural earth pigments widely adopted by other East Kimberley artists.
Visit our website smith-davidson.com for more information.
Artworks
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Highlights
Recommendations
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Artworks by Freddie Timms
Media
Portrait of Freddie Timms
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In museum collection:
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Market position
Since his first exhibition in 1989, Freddie Timms received international recognition for his art. By 1999, he was represented by one of Sydney’s most highly regarded dealers, Frank Watters. His exhibition that year explored the history of an Indigenous bushranger named Major who was shot by police in 1908, after killing whites at Blackfeller Creek. Timms eventually left Watters Gallery and returned to the Kimberley to establish the Jirrawun Aboriginal Art Corporation with help from artist and dealer Tony Oliver.
Timms' work is included in major public collections in Australia, such as the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Art Gallery of South Australia. His paintings were included numerous years in the National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. His work also on display at exhibitions at the Louisiana Museum, Denmark in 1994 and 1996, and at the show 'Prism Contemporary Australian Art' at the Bridgestone Museum of Art in Tokyo in 2006.
Timms' work is included in major public collections in Australia, such as the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Art Gallery of South Australia. His paintings were included numerous years in the National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. His work also on display at exhibitions at the Louisiana Museum, Denmark in 1994 and 1996, and at the show 'Prism Contemporary Australian Art' at the Bridgestone Museum of Art in Tokyo in 2006.
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Selected Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, Melbourne, Australia
Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, USA
Art Bank, Sydney, Australia
Wollongong Art Gallery, Wollongong, Australia
The Holmes á Court Collection, Perth, Australia
The Collection of Colin and Elizabeth Laverty, Sydney, Australia
Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Selected Exhibitions
2006 - 'Prism Contemporary Australian Art', Bridgestone Museum of Art, Japan
2006 - 'Interesting Times', Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia
2003 - 'True Stories: Art of the East Kimberley', Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia
2002 - 'Blood on the Spinifex', The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, Australia
2001 - The 18th National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Australia
2000 - The 17th National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Australia
1993/4 - 'ARATJARA', Art of the First Australians, Australia
1993 - 'Images of Power', Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, National Gallery of Victoria, Australia
1992 - The Ninth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Australia
1991 - The Eighth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Australia
1990 - The Seventh National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Australia
1989 - 'Turkey Creek: Recent Work;, Deutscher Gertrude Street, Australia
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, Melbourne, Australia
Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, USA
Art Bank, Sydney, Australia
Wollongong Art Gallery, Wollongong, Australia
The Holmes á Court Collection, Perth, Australia
The Collection of Colin and Elizabeth Laverty, Sydney, Australia
Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Selected Exhibitions
2006 - 'Prism Contemporary Australian Art', Bridgestone Museum of Art, Japan
2006 - 'Interesting Times', Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia
2003 - 'True Stories: Art of the East Kimberley', Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia
2002 - 'Blood on the Spinifex', The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, Australia
2001 - The 18th National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Australia
2000 - The 17th National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Australia
1993/4 - 'ARATJARA', Art of the First Australians, Australia
1993 - 'Images of Power', Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, National Gallery of Victoria, Australia
1992 - The Ninth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Australia
1991 - The Eighth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Australia
1990 - The Seventh National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Australia
1989 - 'Turkey Creek: Recent Work;, Deutscher Gertrude Street, Australia
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