BORN: c 1945
REGION: KIWIRRKURRA-WESTERN AUSTRALIA, WALUNGURRU (KINTORE) – NORTHERN TERRITORY
LANGUAGE GROUP: PINTUPI
View George’s artwork here
George Ward was born around 1945 at Lararra, East of Tjukurla in Western Australia. He grew up leading a traditional lifestyle without Europeans. He first encountered Europeans when he met Jeremy Long’s Aboriginal welfare patrol near a rockhole site, south of Kiwirrkurra.
His half-brother, a Papunya school co-founder, Pintupi authority and Custodial Glder Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi, was an influence on Georges decision to paint. He commenced painting for Papunya Tula Artists in about 1976. It was here in Papunya where he worked as a butcher and fencer, before moving back to his Pintupi homelands.
He painted in different locations, including Yayayi and Waruwiya outstations of Yamunturrngu (Mount Liebig) and Walungurru (Kinote). With their strong graphic quality Tjungurrayi’s work reflects that of his brother’s in some ways- especially for their similarity to Gibbs’s archetypal mind maps that depict dreaming journeys and sit down places linked by journey lines.
His paintings explore the Tingari cycle and stories associated with a Sacred Site near Lake MacDonald, a dreaming he is custodian of and which is also painted by many Elders from the Region.
In 2004, George Ward Tjungurrayi was honoured to receive the Wynne Prize, the prize awarded each year at the same time as the Archibald for the best Australian landscape painting.
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.