George "Hairbrush" Tjungurrayi was born sometime in the late 1940s near Kiwirrkurra, a remote Pintupi outpost in Western Australia's Gibson Desert. Brought up in the bush, George followed a completely traditional lifestyle away from western influences until, legend has it, curiosity led him to follow a graded track hundreds of kilometres to the Warlpiri settlement of Yuendumu. Shortly thereafter, in the late 1960s, George moved to the settlement of Papunya.
Not being involved in the first wave of artists inspired by Geoffrey Bardon, George did not commence painting until 1976, around the same time as his great mate and skin brother, George Ward Tjungurrayi. Initially, George painted in well worn patterns adopted by many Pintupi artists. During the 1990s, George developed a new expression of the Tingari, the Pintupi's creational figures. It was this breakthrough that led him to his first solo exhibition in 1997. Since 1997, George Tjungurrayi has become one of Australian indigenous art's most collectable artists.
George Tjungurrayi spends the majority of his time with his family at his home in Kintore, about 700 km drive west of Alice Springs.
