Timothy Cook

Born 1958 on Melville Island, Timothy Cook began painting in the mid 1990s. At the start of his career he was one of a number of Tiwi artists who visited the South Australian Museum in Adelaide to view the bark paintings collected by anthropologist Charles Mountford during his National Geographic expedition to Melville Island in 1954. The visiting artists were inspired to create contemporary responses and Cook quickly became one of the most radical interpreters of these early Tiwi works. Timothy Cook was a finalist in the National Aboriginal Art Awards (NATSIA) on six occasions prior to 2010, and selected as a finalist in numerous other national art prizes before winning the NATSIA in 2012. He is renowned for paintings in natural earth pigment characterised by loose, gestural, spacious designs. These are composed with pure instinct and without hesitation.