Biography

Dusti Bongé (1903-1993), nee Eunice Lyle Swetman, was a native of Biloxi, Mississippi. She was a trailblazing artist, who developed a distinctive style moving through periods of Cubism, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism. She is recognized as one of the foremost Southern modernist painters and made a significant contribution to American 20th century art.

Dusti’s first artistic interest was the theater. After graduating college, she moved to Chicago to study drama, and then to New York to further her acting career. She appeared on stage and in silent films in Chicago and New York.

During this time, she met her future husband, Archie Bongé, a promising young painter from Nebraska. She also acquired the nickname “Dusti”.  

Dusti and Archie were married in Biloxi in 1928 and settled in New York. Their son Lyle was born a year later in 1929. They moved to Biloxi in 1934, to raise Lyle and to allow Archie more time for painting. But tragically, Archie became seriously ill and passed away in 1936.

After Archie’s death, Dusti found solace in his studio and began painting and drawing seriously. She was 33. It was Archie who had encouraged her natural abilities as an artist, after she once drew him a “picture” to make up for an argument. 

Dusti Bongé is best known for her abstract work that first garnered public attention in a solo exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York in 1956. This placed her in a select group of artists that included Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, and Clyfford Still. She continued to be shown at the Parsons Gallery until 1975, and kept painting well into her late 80’s.

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