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George Tjungurrayi’s creation of bold linear designs in a minimal palette appeals to Western notions of abstraction, yet it encodes layers of association with traditional knowledge and specific places in his Pintupi desert homeland. His parallel lines evoke windblown sand ridges, the finely fluted carving found on wooden artefacts, and traditional motifs connected to the stories and travels of ancestral Tingari people across his Country.

Tjungurrayi spent most of his formative childhood and teenage years living a traditional lifestyle in the Gibson Desert of Western Australia. Around 1960, aged about seventeen, he arrived at Papunya, where in the mid-1970s he began painting. He initially painted in the classic Pintupi style of interconnected circles to represent Tingari Tjukurpa, narratives of great journeys associated with initiation. However, from 1996, back in his homeland, he dramatically shifted to his hallmark linear style.

Barry Patton, Tarnanthi Writer & Researcher