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George Tjungurrayi

About

George Tjungurrayi (born c. 1947) was born near the site of Walawala near the community of Kiwirrkurra in Western Australia. He began painting in the late 1970s under senior artists and founders of the Western Desert art practice such as Uta Uta Tjangala and Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri. In the late 1990s, George Tjungurrayi abandoned the traditional technique of dotting grids and circles and developed his own style of intricate and topographical line work likened to the fine parallel incisions of ceremonial wood carving. This stylistic innovation remains influential in Western Desert art.

George Tjungurrayi is deeply invested in his Pintupi heritage, particularly the stories of the Tingarri cycle from his Country. His unique visual language sublimates the details of his relationship to these sacred places and their information into dynamic linear compositions painted in simple, precise lines. His pared-back compositions reveal strength and assurance as an artist with an enlightened vision of his depicted Country and disclose an elevated level of dedication and restraint. He has been represented in solo exhibitions in Australia and in the Sydney Biennale, where a suite of his paintings was exhibited both on the ground and the wall.