Freddy Timms

Aboriginal artist Freddy Timms, was given the bush name, Gnarrmaliny, after the place he was born, which is also known as Police Hole, on the vast East Kimberley Cattle Station, Bedford Downs. Growing up on the busy property, he learned all the necessary riding and stock handling skills at an early age. He contract mustered on most of them surrounding pastoral leases, including Bedford, Bow River, Lissadell, Mabel Downs, Old Argyle and Texas Downs. After the stockmen’s dispute in the seventies, which resulted in the removal of most of the people from their homelands, he was placed first in the Guda-Guda Community at Wyndham, after which, he and his family were relocated to Warmun/Turkey Creek. Before the artist passed away in March 2017, he and wife Beryline, lived at the tiny community of Frog Hollow where he enjoyed the peace and quiet painting his stories. He started painting in the 1980s, using the knowledge and techniques that he had acquired by working  and talking with, the other stockmen/artists such as Jack Britten, Hector Jandanay, Henry Wambini, the late Rover Thomas and his father-in-law, Paddy Jampinji, who was one of the finest of the earlier Warmun/Turkey Creek artists.
Subject & Themes
Minimalist ‘aerial’ / map view, large rounded blocks of colour. Lake Argyle/Ord river area stories, Argyle Diamond Mine country, Bulunyin country, Barungi country. Turkey Creek School.
Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, The NetherlandsThe Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, U.S.A.
Group Exhibitions
1989, Turkey Creek: Recent Work, Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne
1990, The Seventh National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1991, The Eighth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1992, The Ninth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1993, Images of Power, Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1993/4, ARATJARA, Art of the First Australians, Touring: Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf
Hayward Gallery, London; Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark
Bibliography
Ryan, J., 1993, Images of Power, Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, exhib, cat., National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1993, Aratjara, Art of the First Australians: Traditional and Contemporary Works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Artists, exhib. cat. (conceived and designed by Bernard Luthi in collaboration with Gary Lee), Dumont, Buchverlag, Koln. (C)