George Albert Harris, painter, muralist, and printmaker, was born in San Francisco on 24 January 1913. He first studied music and then switched to art in 1929 studying for three years at the California School of Fine Arts. In 1934, Harris was accepted into the WPA Federal Art Project while still a student and was one of the youngest artists on the mural project at Coit Tower in San Francisco where he painted the mural Banking and Law. He was included in the seminal opening exhibition of the San Francisco Museum of Art [now the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art] in 1935.

Harris taught at San Francisco State College in 1935 and later at the San Francisco Museum of (Modern) Art, Stanford University, and the California College of Arts and Crafts. In the 1950s, Harris obtained a Ph.D. from Stanford University and went on to teach at Notre Dame College in Belmont, California between 1957 and 1968. Harris moved to Massachusetts in 1968 and taught for two years at Emanuel College in Boston before moving to Sussex, England where he continued to teach for another seven years.

George Harris was a member of the San Francisco Art Association and the American Artists Congress. His works are represented in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California;  and the Library of Congress, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.  

In 1980, Harris moved to southern France where he painted until his death on 25 September 1991.