VIKE, HARALD (1906-1987)

"Blonde Woman" (c.1970)
oil on board
56 x 67cm
signed on verso
*estate of the late Harald Vike, Perth
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Vike was an influential Perth-based, Norweigan-born Expressionist. He settled in Perth in 1929, where he took art lessons at James W. R. Linton’s Institute of Art and from George Pitt Morison, the curator of art at the Western Australian Museum and Art Gallery, who became a good friend and mentor. Drawing and painting both the city and its inhabitants and the surrounding countryside, in 1933 he won the West Australian Society of Arts’ prize for landscape in watercolours. Late in 1934 Vike became a founding member of the Workers’ Art Club (from 1936 the Workers’ Art Guild) & in 1935, he joined the Communist Party of Australia. An active member of the guild, he acted in plays, designed & constructed sets & conducted weekly drawing classes for no pay. In 1934-37 he shared a studio with Herbert McClintock and regularly exhibited his landscapes and Perth city scenes. In 1941 Vike moved to Melbourne. During World War II he worked at the Commonwealth Steel Co. Ltd’s store. He continued to paint city scenes—roofscapes, laneways and backyards—as well as people either at work or sitting in trams. During World War II he worked at the Commonwealth Steel Co. Ltd’s store. He continued to paint city scenes—roofscapes, laneways and backyards—as well as people either at work or sitting in trams. Although he held several solo exhibitions, he did not enjoy meeting prospective buyers of his paintings & failed to sell enough to make a living. His work was hung in group exhibitions, including Western Australian Artists 1920-50 (AGWA, 1980) & Aspects of Perth Modernism 1929-1942 (University of Western Australia, 1986). Early in 1986 he returned to live in North Perth; the last pictures that he painted were of the Swan River.