Artwork

Dusti Bongé’s work went through several stylistic evolutions, embracing various visual vocabularies, while continually growing more and more abstract. - (1936-1945) Dusti’s early work was informed by Archie’s art and focused on regional images, local scenes and still lifes. She quickly developed an avant-garde style–playing with angular surfaces, geometry, and color–to create brightly colored Cubist-inspired works. - (1945-1954) Following this early period she entered a period of Surrealist experimentation, creating a unique type of visual imagery inspired by the circus and later a distinctive vocabulary populated by attenuated figures she referred to as “Keyhole People”. Eventually this work became totally abstract. - (1955-1980) By 1955 she had fully embraced the bold, gestural, expressionist painting that dominated American art of the period. She became one of the first generation Abstract Expressionists. Her association with the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York lasted from 1946 to 1975. - (1980-1991) Later in life she continued to create bold abstract works, both in a series of large canvases, and in a significant body of small, delicate paintings, many on small “Joss” papers (bamboo/rice paper with gold/silver leaf squares). Dusti never sought fame or attention. She did not consider art a career, but a way of life, a way to express ideas flowing from the unconscious mind, and an intuitive search for the unknown.