Week #10, Thinking in Color II

Dusti Bongé, Untitled (Teal and Black Abstract), 1960, mixed media, 24” x 19”

In contrast to last week’s high voltage Festival of Colors painting, this week we present a work exemplifying Dusti Bongé’s proclaimed love of all colors. This work would by Dusti’s own assessment be considered a painting in “dull” colors.

Dusti did not discuss art much, she preferred creating it. However, the few times that she did express her thoughts on art, they would often revolve around color. One of those expressed thoughts was the following: “I love color, I love color everywhere.  I love dull colors, I love gray colors – they don’t have to be bright.”

And indeed, throughout her career she used all colors. In the 1950s and 1960s especially, she executed many a work in dull colors including large canvases and numerous works on paper. There are a few canvas painting that are exclusively painted in shades of gray, and an array of works where she experiments with browns, tans, and dulled tones of bluish grays and mustardy yellows.

In this work from around 1960 she uses black and a very dark shade of teal. With just these two shades Dusti builds a richly layered work on buff paper which features prominently as part of painting. The disposition of the colors is in genuine interplay with the negative space on the page. Vertical teal brush strokes, intersected by mostly horizontal black heavy lines and marks fill the left two-thirds of the space. The remaining third is mostly empty save for a few swirling black marks that exist almost separately from the main design.

Although this is a very abstract work, nonetheless, the dark teal is reminiscent of the shadowy deep sea, with the black lines appearing like underwater currents, and “fishy” shapes. As such the work is testament to Dusti’s continual inspiration from the coast.