Born about 1947 near Kiwirrkura in WA, George Ward Tjungurrayi first painted for Papunya Tula Artists in 1976 and was awarded the Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2004. George paints the sacred and secret Tingari Cycle, using a webbing of dark ochres in a strictly delineated, geometric style, reminiscent of the sand and body painting of the Western Desert.
Biography
George Ward Tjungurrayi was born about 1945-‘47 in the area near Kiwirrkura, near several significant ceremonial (Dreaming) sites. George and Willy Tjungurrayi, his older brother, who is also a senior Pintupi painter, moved to Papunya in the 1960s. In the late 1970s they began to paint for the Papunya Tula Artists cooperative. George painted at various locations, including Mt Liebig (Yamunturrngu) and Kintore (Walungurru), and at the Yayayi and Waruwiya outstations, working alongside Joseph Jurra Tjapatjarri and Ray James Tjangala.
The Paintings It was after 1995 that George Tjungurrayi began painting the mesmerizing acrylic canvasses for which he is best known, the new style evolving from the more classic iconography he had used previously. The recent paintings feature closely painted lines of a single muted colour on a contrasting ground or undercoat, parallel curving tracks or fingerprint-like whorls that tell the stories associated with different sacred sites and Dreamings for which the painter shares custodianship. The stories have to do with the ancestral, mythic Tingari men and their travels, and the dramatic events that shaped the land in the Dreamtime, such as those associated with the Pilkati (snake) Dreaming. Usually, specific details are not given for the stories, since they are part of secret business.
Collections National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Musée des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie, Paris, France
Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands
Exhibitions Selected exhibitions: George Tjungurrayi has exhibited regularly in group exhibitions since the early 1980s throughout Australia and overseas, including Italy, Germany, France, Austria, Israel and the United Kingdom.
1990, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999: Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs
1995: Australia Now: Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Groninger Museum, Groningen, Netherlands.
1997: Utopia Art, Sydney, Australia
2000: Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius , Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
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