History

Dusti Bongé (1903-1993), neé Eunice Lyle Swetman, was a member of the first generation of abstract expressionist painters, the singularly American art movement of the 20th Century. A native of Biloxi, Mississippi, Bongé nevertheless showed with the groundbreaking Betty Parsons Gallery in New York from the 1940s through the 1970s in the company of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and other major players of that time. Although long credited as the first truly modernist painter from Mississippi, Bongé’s part in this revolutionary chapter of American art history was not recognized until over 25 years after her passing.

 

The Dusti Bongé Art Foundation (DBAF) was incorporated, as a 501(c)3 nonprofit, in 1995 by Dusti Bongé's son the late photographer, Lyle Bongé, and maintains a significant collection of Bongé’s artworks and archival material. The entirety of Dusti Bongé's estate is held by the Dusti Bongé Art Foundation and the collection of Paul Bongé, Bongé's grandson. 
 

The Foundation, working in conjunction with the Paul Bongé Collection, fosters public appreciation of Bongé’s work by collaborating with museums, art galleries, and others on exhibitions, research, conservation, scholarship and publications. The Foundation welcomes the opportunity to share knowledge about Bongé’s art and life, and the art historical context in which she worked. 

​Overview
The DBAF’s ongoing efforts include cataloging and conserving the collection of Dusti Bongé’s work, while promoting public awareness about the artist's life and work through different outlets, including online and other venues. Long term goals include continuing research toward a catalogue raisonné and cataloguing the artist's archive of papers and other documentation of historical value related to the artist.

 

Through the years the DBAF has accomplished several of its primary goals. We have donated select works by Dusti Bongé to other Museums. We have cooperated with others on several major retrospective exhibitions of her work. We published the definitive, academic monograph, Dusti Bongé, Art and Life: Biloxi, New Orleans, New York, by J. Richard Gruber (2019), about her life and art. And in 2021, more than 45 years after her last solo show at the Betty Parsons Gallery, we brought Bongé’s artwork back to New York where she got her start.