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Born c. 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.
Born 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.
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.
George
Tjungurrayi
Untitled
Acrylic on
linen
191 x
130cm
$15,000
George
Tjungurrayi
Untitled
(2)
Acrylic on
linen
137 x
131cm
1999
$9,000
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