George Hairbrush Tjungurrayi

 

About George Hairbrush Tjungurrayi

Date of Birth

c.1943

Place of Birth

Walawala, Kiwirrkurra, WA

Language

Pintupi

Community

Kintore, NT

Career

George Hairbrush Tjungurrayi arrived at Papunya in 1962 after walking in from the Gibson Desert in Western Australia. When the Desert Art painting movement began at Papunya in 1971 George assisted other senior artists with their paintings.

Then he began painting his own works around 1976 with the encouragement of senior lawman Nosepeg Tjupurrula. The artwork created by George Tjungurrayi in the 1970’s and 1980’s was typical of the imagery used by major Pintupi artists like Anatjari Tjamptjinpa and Yala Yala Gibbs.

By the mid 1980s George Tjungurrayi began a more experimental phase in his art, embracing colours beyond the earth based palette. His subject matter remained the ceremonies and stories bound up with the journeys of the Ancestors told through the Tingari cycle of sacred songs. These narratives related to sacred sites including his own birth place Wala Wala, and other locations around Kiwirrkura and Lake Mackay across to Kilpinya to the north of Kintore.

Paintings from the 1980s by senior Papunya artists including George’s brother Willy Tjungurrayi and fellow artists Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa and Mick Namarari open up a new phase of the Desert art movement.

The artworks begin to move away from the traditional narrative conventions embraced by the original founding artists. Now the paintings have a different energy and power emanating from the source of the Tingari law without referring to specific moments. The designs are recognisable from the fluted carvings made of fine parallel lines and interlocking motifs that decorate men’s ceremonial items and sacred objects.

George Tjungurrayi continued to build his artistic reputation with solo exhibitions in the late 1990s and representation in the Wynne Prize and in major public and private collections. He remains one of the great names of the early Papunya movement still creating major works today.

George Hairbrush Tjungurrayi arrived at Papunya in 1962 after walking in from the Gibson Desert in Western Australia. When the Desert Art painting movement began at Papunya in 1971 George assisted other senior artists with their paintings.

Then he began painting his own works around 1976 with the encouragement of senior lawman Nosepeg Tjupurrula. The artwork created by George Tjungurrayi in the 1970’s and 1980’s was typical of the imagery used by major Pintupi artists like Anatjari Tjamptjinpa and Yala Yala Gibbs.

By the mid 1980s George Tjungurrayi began a more experimental phase in his art, embracing colours beyond the earth based palette. His subject matter remained the ceremonies and stories bound up with the journeys of the Ancestors told through the Tingari cycle of sacred songs. These narratives related to sacred sites including his own birth place Wala Wala, and other locations around Kiwirrkura and Lake Mackay across to Kilpinya to the north of Kintore.

Paintings from the 1980s by senior Papunya artists including George’s brother Willy Tjungurrayi and fellow artists Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa and Mick Namarari open up a new phase of the Desert art movement.

The artworks begin to move away from the traditional narrative conventions embraced by the original founding artists. Now the paintings have a different energy and power emanating from the source of the Tingari law without referring to specific moments. The designs are recognisable from the fluted carvings made of fine parallel lines and interlocking motifs that decorate men’s ceremonial items and sacred objects.

George Tjungurrayi continued to build his artistic reputation with solo exhibitions in the late 1990s and representation in the Wynne Prize and in major public and private collections. He remains one of the great names of the early Papunya movement still creating major works today.

Solo Exhibitions

2020 The Iconic George Hairbrush Tjungurrayi exhibition, Mandel Aboriginal Art Gallery, Melbourne
2018 George Tjungurrayi: Major Works, Utopia Art, Sydney
2016 Paintings, Utopia Art, Sydney
2016 Desert Line, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2013 Pulka Canvas, Utopia Art, Sydney
2011 Space and Place, Utopia Art, Sydney
2008 Between the lines, Utopia Art, Sydney
2003 Paintings from Mamultjulkulnga and Kirrimalunya, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2002 Utopia Art, Sydney
2002 New Fields, Utopia Art, Sydney
1998 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
1997 George Tjungurrayi – first solo show, Utopia Art, Sydney
1989 – 2002 Unforeseen , FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane

Selected Group Exhibitions

2021 Director’s Cut: 2021, Harvey Art Projects USA, Ketchum, ID, USA
2021 Community XII – 50 Years of Papunya Tula Artists, Utopia Art, Sydney
2021 50 Years of Papunya Tula Artists, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2021 papunya tula | fifty years, Harvey Arts Projects, Sun Valley, ID, USA
2021 Country in Mind, University of the Sunshine Coast, QLD
2021 SIGNIFICANT, D’Lan Contemporary, Melbourne
2021 The McClelland Collection: 50 Years, McClelland Sculpture Park & Gallery, Langwarrin, VIC
2021 Papunya Tula: 50 years 1971-2021, S.H. Erwin Gallery, Sydney
2020 Grounded, Masterworks from Indigenous Australia, Harvey Art Projects, Ketchum, ID, USA
2020 Sydney Contemporary 2020, Sydney
2020 Desert Painters of Australia – Two Generations, Gagosian Gallery, Hong Kong
2020 Central Focus, Art Mob, Hobart
2020 Desert Stories, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin
2020 Reflections on Emily and Papunya, High Line Nine Galleries, New York
2020 Pintupi Masters – Enduring Dreamings, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2020 Director’s Choice 2020, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2020 Spring, Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane
2020 Papunya, D’Lan Contemporary, Melbourne
2020 Linesmen, Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane
2019 Grand Old Men – a survey exhibition, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin
2019 Desert Painters of Australia: Works form the Kluge-Ruhe Collection of the University of Virginia and the Collection of Steve Martin & Anne Stringfield, Gagosian Gallery, New York, and Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles
2019 Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks, Sydney
2019 defining tradition | black + white, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2019 Community X, Utopia Art, Sydney
2019 Pintupi Artists of the Western Desert, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
2019 Celebrating Australian Abstraction, Utopia Art, Sydney
2019 Significant, D’Lan Contemporary, Melbourne
2018 Anniversary Group Show I: Country Lines, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2018 Superposition: Equilibrium and Engagement, 21st Biennale of Sydney, Carriageworks, Sydney
2018 Community IX, Utopia Art, Sydney
2017 Gems of the Stockroom, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2017 Masters, Utopia Art, Sydney
2017 Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks, Sydney
2017 Along the Lines, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2017 Duddell’s x Biennale of Sydney, Abstraction of the World, Duddell’s, Hong Kong, curated by Mami Kataoka
2017 Salon des Refuses, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
2017 Community VIII, Utopia Art, Sydney
2017 Museum III, Utopia Art, Sydney
2017 Alternative Museum, Utopia Art, Sydney
2016 Landstract Abscape, Utopia Art, Sydney
2016 Cornucopia, Utopia Art, Sydney
2015 Community VII, Utopia Art, Sydney
2015 Collectible, Utopia Art, Sydney
2015 Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks, Sydney
2015 Wynners, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2014 Abstraction, Utopia, Art, Sydney
2014 Community VI, Utopia Art, Sydney
2014 Sublime Point: the Landscape in Painting, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Hazelhurst, NSW
2013 The Salon, Utopia Art, Sydney
2013 Painting Now, Utopia Art, Sydney
2013 No Boundaries, Bayside Arts & Cultural Centre, Melbourne
2013 Landscape, Utopia Art, Sydney
2013 Community V, Utopia Art, Sydney
2012 Abstraction, Utopia Art, Sydney
2012 Volume One: MCA Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
2012 Classic Works from Papunya Tula Artists, Utopia Art, Sydney
2012 Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle
2012 Interconnected, Utopia Art, Sydney
2012 Reportoire, Utopia Art, Sydney
2012 Community IV, Celebrating 40 years of Paumya Tula Artists, Utopia Art, Sydney
2012 Unique Perspectives: Papunya Tula Artists and the Alice Springs Community, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs
2011 Up Close and Personal: works from the collection of Dr Peter Elliott AM, S. H. Ervin Gallery,
Sydney
2011 AAA – Australian Abstract Art, Utopia Art, Sydney
2011 40 years of Papunya Tula Art, Utopia Art, Sydney
2011 Pintupi Art 2011, A P Bond Gallery, Adelaide
2011 Papunya Tula Artists – Community III, Utopia Art, Sydney
2010 Museum III, Utopia Art, Sydney
2010 Desert Country, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
2010 Papunya Tula Artists Now, Utopia Art, Sydney
2010 Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2010 Ngurra Kutju Ngurrara – Belonging To One Country, ReDot Gallery, Singapore
2010 The Desert Mob Art Show, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs
2010 Wilkinkarralakutu – Journeys To Lake Mackay, Cross Cultural Art Exchange, Darwin
2010 Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, Darwin Convention Centre, Darwin
2010 Aboriginal Art 2010, Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne
2010 Tradition & Innovation – Papunya Tula 2010, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2010 Recent Paintings, Chapman Gallery, Canberra
2009 Nganana Tjungurrayi Tjukurrpa Nintintjakitja: We are Here Sharing our Dreaming, East Galleries, New York
2009 Papunya Tula Classics, Utopia Art Sydney
2009 Papunya 2009: Senior Pintupi Artists, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2009 Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, The Chan Building, Bennett Park Darwin
2009 Painting the Country, Cross Cultural Art Exchange, Darwin
2009 Pintupi 2009, Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide
2009 Community – The Heart of Papunya Tula Artists, Utopia Art, Sydney
2009 Nganampatju Kanpatja Winki, Nganampatju Yara Winkii – All Our Paintings, All Our Stories, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
2008 Ngurra Yurru Kulintjaku – Always Remembering Country, Cross Cultural Art Exchange, Darwin
2008 David Larwill and the Western Desert Artists, Stephan Wiess Studio, New York
2008 Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, Convention Centre, Darwin
2008 Aboriginal Art 2008, Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne
2008 The Desert Mob Show, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs
2008 20 Years of Papunya Tula Artists, Utopia Art, Sydney
2008 Pintupi Art 2008, Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide
2008 Kintore to Kiwirrkura – Papunya Tula Artists, ReDot Gallery, Singapore

Collections

Steve Martin & Anne Springfield Collections, USA
Kluge-Ruhe Collection of the University of Virginia, USA
Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands
Kelton Foundation, Los Angeles, USA
Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Musee des Arts d’Afrique et d’Oceanie, Paris
National Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Queensland University, Brisbane
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs
Artbank, Sydney
Supreme Court of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Perth
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Dr Peter Elliot Collection, Sydney
Hank Ebes Collection, Melbourne
The Luczo Family Collection, USA
Museo Sa Bassa Blanca, Mallorca, Spain
Australian National University, Canberra
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Kaplan & Levi Collection, USA
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA
Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra
Sammlung Klein, Eberdingen-Nussdorf, Germany
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Sammlung Essl, Vienna
Corrigan Collection, Sydney
Luciano Benetton Collection, Venice
McClelland Collection, McClelland Sculpture Park & Gallery, Langwarrin, VIC
Fondation Burkhardt-Felder Arts et Culture, Motiers, Switzerland

Awards

2021 38th NATSIAA, Darwin – Finalist
2020 Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney – Finalist
2020 Mosman Art Prize, Sydney – Finalist
2019 Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney – Finalist
2018 Sydney Biennale
2016 Wynne Prize AGNSW (Finalist)
2015 Wynne Prize AGNSW (Finalist)
2014 Wynne Prize AGNSW (Finalist)
2010 27th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award Darwin (highly commended)
2007 Wynne Prize AGNSW (Finalist)
2004 Wynne Prize AGNSW (Finalist)

Links

YouTube
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Art Gallery of New South Wales