The Forgotten Art of Flash Jack Barrymore.
Works on Paper, Painted Pearl Shells and Engraved Boab Nuts, from the first half of the 20th Century.
Kim Akerman with Bruno Jordanoff.
ISBN 978-0-85905-993-0, (New, 2023), A4, Illustrated in colour, french flaps, 86 pages, 390 grams, $52.00*
In the first half of the 20th century Flash Jack was a well-known and respected artist who primarily catered for the crews and passengers of steam ships that serviced the coastal towns of Western Australia and sailed north to Singapore.
Working on paper, boab nuts and small pearl shells, Jack created images of Aboriginal life in the Kimberley. Sadly, by the 1970s his name had disappeared from the story of Kimberley indigenous art history. In The Forgotten Art of ‘Flash Jack’ Barrymore, Kim Akerman with Bruno Jordanoff examine Jack’s life and art, bringing together nearly a hundred works of art which had, until recently, been forgotten and place this extraordinary man as a crusader for Aboriginal contemporary art in the Kimberley.