Freddie Timms / Dewariny (Devil-Devil) – Bow River (N-0701-FT)

Artwork is accompanied by Narrangunny Art Traders Certificate of Authenticity

1944 – 2017

Freddie Ngarrmaliny Timms was one of the most important and distinctive painters of the second generation of East Kimberley artists. Born in 1944 at Ngarrmaliny, also known as Police Hole, near Foal Creek on Bedford Downs Station, his Gija name Ngarrmaliny came from the place of his birth.

Freddie grew up on Bow River and Lissadell Stations and spent much of his early life working as a stockman, handyman and fencer on cattle stations throughout the East Kimberley. This life gave him an extraordinary knowledge of the landscape, its rivers and waterholes, stock routes, station roads, hills, grazing country and seasonal changes. These places, and the histories connected to them, would later become the foundation of his painting.

He knew and worked alongside Rover Thomas during their stockman years at Bow River and Texas Downs and was closely connected to the remarkable generation of East Kimberley artists that included Rover Thomas, Jack Britten, Hector Jandany, George Mung Mung and Paddy Jaminji. Freddie also participated in early performances of the Gurrir Gurrir ceremony associated with Rover Thomas before beginning his own painting career in the late 1980s.

Although firmly grounded in the ochre painting tradition of the East Kimberley, Freddie developed a visual language that was unmistakably his own. His paintings often resemble aerial maps of Country, with broad fields of natural ochre divided by winding lines, watercourses, roads and finely dotted boundaries. Waterholes, hills, stockyards and other landmarks appear as simplified forms within these expansive compositions.

For Freddie, these were not simply landscapes. They were places he knew intimately through a lifetime of travelling, camping, working and mustering across Country. His paintings recorded personal memories, pastoral history and the profound changes experienced by Gija people following colonisation.

Some of Freddie’s most significant works also confront the more difficult history of the East Kimberley, addressing displacement, frontier violence and the experiences of Gija people under the pastoral industry. Important works from this body of painting include Blackfella Whitefella (1999), now held by the National Gallery of Australia, and Death of Major at Nine Mile (1999), held by the Australian War Memorial.

Freddie’s distinctive talent was recognised very early in his painting career. In 1990 the National Gallery of Victoria acquired Violet Valley, painted that same year, and he went on to become a six-time finalist in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1999, 2000 and 2001.

His work gained substantial national and international recognition throughout the 1990s and 2000s. He was included in the landmark Images of Power: Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1993 and the major international touring exhibition Aratjara: Art of the First Australians. His paintings were subsequently exhibited throughout Australia and internationally, including in London, Paris, Chicago, Tokyo, the Netherlands and the United States.

In 2006 Freddie’s work was included in Great Masters at the Aboriginal Art Museum in Utrecht, alongside a small group of leading Aboriginal artists including Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Rover Thomas. The following year his monumental painting Jack’s Yard was prominently featured in the Art Gallery of New South Wales publication and exhibition One Sun One Moon: Aboriginal Art in Australia, further recognising his place among Australia’s leading Aboriginal artists.

Freddie was also a highly respected Gija elder with exceptional knowledge of the Country, topography and seasonal conditions of the East Kimberley. He was a strong advocate for Aboriginal artists and was actively involved for many years with the organisation now known as ANKA, supporting greater Indigenous representation and fairness within the Aboriginal art industry.

Freddie continued painting the Country he knew and loved until the end of his life in 2017. His spare, powerful compositions remain instantly recognisable, and his paintings are represented in many of Australia’s major public collections as well as significant private and international collections.

His standing has continued to grow since his passing. Freddie’s paintings remain highly sought after by collectors, with significant works continuing to achieve strong results on the Australian secondary art market.

Artlandish was honoured to have both a close working relationship and a treasured friendship with Freddie for more than 17 years. We remember him as a strong, proud and quietly spoken man, and he remains greatly missed by us all.

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

• National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
• National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
• Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
• Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
• Australian War Memorial, Canberra
• Wesfarmers Art Collection, Perth
• Artbank, Sydney
• Wollongong Art Gallery, Wollongong
• Holmes à Court Collection, Perth
• The Colin and Elizabeth Laverty Collection, Sydney
• The Kelton Collection, Santa Monica, USA
• Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands
• Fondation Burkhardt-Felder Arts et Culture, Môtiers, Switzerland

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

• 2023 – Ngarrmaliny, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney
• 2022 – Works from the Estate, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney
• 2018 – Mr Timms, Raft Artspace, Sydney
• 2004 – Freddie Timms, Melbourne Art Fair, Gould Galleries, Melbourne
• 2003 – Freddie Timms, Gould Galleries, Sydney
• 2002 – Freddie Timms, Gould Galleries, Melbourne
• 2000 – Recent Paintings, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
• 1999 – Recent Paintings, Watters Gallery, Sydney
• 1999 – My Country, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne
• 1997 – Recent Paintings, Watters Gallery, Sydney
• 1994 – Solo Exhibition, Kimberley Art, Melbourne

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

• 2025 – Reverence 2025, D’Lan Contemporary, Melbourne
• 2021 – Voyage across Aboriginal Australia: Founders’ Favourites, Fondation Burkhardt-Felder Arts et Culture, Môtiers, Switzerland
• 2019 – Earthworks, JGM Gallery, London
• 2015–2017 – In the Saddle – On the Wall, Kimberley Aboriginal Artists touring exhibition
• 2006 – Great Masters, Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands
• 2006 – Prism: Contemporary Australian Art, Bridgestone Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
• 2005 – Interesting Times, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
• 2003 – True Stories: Art of the East Kimberley, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
• 2002 – Blood on the Spinifex, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne
• 2000 – Landmark: Mirror Mark, Northern Territory University, Darwin; Columbus State University, Georgia, USA; Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, University of Virginia, USA; Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra
• 1998 – The Laverty Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
• 1996 – Art Chicago, Chicago, USA
• 1996 – Galerie Baudoin Lebon, FIAC, Paris, France
• 1993–1994 – Aratjara: Art of the First Australians, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany; Hayward Gallery, London, UK; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark
• 1993 – Images of Power: Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
• 1989 – Turkey Creek: Recent Work, Deutscher, Melbourne

SELECTED MEDIA

• 2004 – True Stories: Artists of the East Kimberley, Art Gallery of New South Wales
• 1999 – Art From the Heart, ABC Television

Painted in 1996, this striking work by the late Freddie Timms depicts Dewariny — sometimes spelt Juwarri or Jewaring. Also known as Devil-Devil and one of the most feared Ngarrankarni (Dreamtime) spirits in the Gija/Kija world, he is said to inhabit caves at Bow River and other shadowed places.

Freddie was a close friend of renowned artist Rover Thomas and took part in his Kurrirr-Kurrirr ceremonies (sometimes spelt Krill Krill, Kuril Kuril or Gurrir Gurrir), helping to paint boards and perform in the early dances. Dewariny featured prominently in the ceremony.

In this painting, Freddie distils that ceremonial intensity into a stark, minimal composition — natural ochres and charcoal — evoking the enduring spiritual presence within Gija Country.