George Tuckerbox Exhibition - Art from the Great Sandy Desert
Gallery 2
 Collaboration Wangkatjungka artists | Country Leading from KurlyayiSold |  George Tuckerbox | KurtalSold |  Collaboration Wangkatjungka artists | Waterholes in Desert CountrySold |  George Tuckerbox | YuramarlSold |  George Tuckerbox | LungkurtaSold |  Wangkatjungka Collaboration | Waterholes and HomelandsSold |  George Tuckerbox | KurtalSold |  Wangkatjungka Collaboration | Sandhill and Waterhole Country- Our LandSold |  Collaboration Wangkatjungka artists | Canning Stock RouteSold |  George Tuckerbox | MarkurtiSold |  George Tuckerbox | Naminpa – Father’s CountrySold |  George Tuckerbox | NarmiUnavailable |  George Tuckerbox | KurtukurtaSold |  Collaboration Wangkatjungka artists | Desert Waterholes Near KurtalSold |  George Tuckerbox | MangkiSold |  George Tuckerbox | Naami WaterholeSold |  George Tuckerbox | MangkiUnavailable |  George Tuckerbox | LungkiSold |  George Tuckerbox | MintiSold |  Wangkatjungka Collaboration | Country With Water and Country Still WaitingSold |  George Tuckerbox | MintiSold |  George Tuckerbox | YarringaSold |  George Tuckerbox | MangkiSold |  George Tuckerbox | NamimpaSold |  George Tuckerbox | Old Man Hunting EmuSold |  George Tuckerbox | LurrturrpaUnavailable |  Collaboration Wangkatjungka artists | Desert Homelands – Waterholes and CountrySold |  Wangkatjungka Collaboration | Ngupawarlu – Waterholes & Desert CountrySold |  George Tuckerbox | Ngumi – Warla lakeSold |
Senior Wangkatjungka artist George Tuckerbox was part of a great exodus of Aboriginal families in the 1940s, who moved north from their desert homelands to settlements around the Fitzroy River region. Many of the older people died on the journey from newly encountered diseases, as they made their first contact with the white settlers on cattle stations in the area.
When George Tuckerbox was about 12 he arrived at Christmas Creek station, where some of his family members had settled. He was taught the trade of stockman at Yeeda Station, working with horses and cattle, and moved back to work at Christmas Creek. Then he worked on teams droving bullocks from Balgo to Alice Springs across the Tanami Desert.
In the 1980s George lived at the newly built community at Wangkatjungka next to Christmas Creek Station. In 1987 he was a singer in a ceremonial troupe that performed traditional song and dance ceremonies in Tokyo during a major exhibition for artist Jimmy Pike.
From 1994 senior artists living at Wangkatjungka community began painting their own traditional stories. The artists developed their own style, using bright colours associated with desert artists and combining figurative elements with a broader map-making approach to describing country.
George Tuckerbox painted the country and waterholes that he remembered from his childhood, from the time when his family lived off the resources of their traditional lands. Many of his paintings show the parallel rows of sandhills that flow out from Central Australia and dominate the landscape. George Tuckerbox also contributed to large collaborative paintings done by Wangkatjungka elders that showed the clan ownership of tracts of lands by related family groups. Much of the history of this region lives on in the memories of these elder people, as most of this desert country is now completely de-populated and without road access.
The exhibition of paintings by George Tuckerbox runs from 2 September to 28 October at Japingka Gallery.