GEORGE TJUNGURRAYI (c. 1945)

George Tjungurrayi was born in 1945. George is the youngest of three brothers, the late Yala Yala Gibbs who was a founding member of the Papunya Art movement and senior custodian of secret/sacred men's business, and Willy Tjungurrayi.  In his teenage years, George encountered Europeans for the first time when a commonwealth welfare group came upon his family group camped by a desert waterhole.  He then travelled to the government settlement at Papunya the first home of the Desert Art movement.

 

George worked briefly as a fencer, a butcher in the community kitchen at Papunya. He began painting for the Papunya Tula Artists around 1976.  George observed the beautiful works that his brothers were painting they both were among Papunya Tula's leading artists in Walungurru. After the death of his brother Yula Yula, the responsibility to paint fell squarely on George's shoulders. He was by now a senior Desert man and was developing his own distinct style, Lake McDonald is often the subject of his paintings. George has become one of Australia's most admired artists and is recognised world wide.