Week #12, Thinking in Color IV

Dusti Bongé, Untitled (Black and Red), 1984, mixed media on joss paper, 6 ¼” x 5 ½”

This week in our Thinking in Color series we feature one of Dusti Bongé’s gemlike joss papers. This is one from the selection of red works in the exhibit. While most of the other pieces in that group offer a healthy dose of red, this work is actually predominantly black. And yet, this makes Dusti’s sparing use of red all the more powerful. It shines like a jewel in a pool of darkness.

In this joss paper painting Dusti has allowed the small gold foil square to be the focal point of the work. For one, she placed a big red dot right at its center. Secondly, she accented its iridescence with a light silvery-gray mottled pattern. Thirdly, by surrounding it with several concentric layers of roughly square frames, she emphasizes its centrality.

The first concentric square surrounding the gold leaf is a narrow black band. Its sides get slightly wider toward the bottom, angling into the gold. This creates two angular slivers of grayish gold that have a smokey effect. They also turn the gold leaf square into a trapezoid.

The second frame surrounding the black one is slightly tilted off axis, again creating a trapezoidal form that is nonetheless still concentric. This second, wider frame is a deep, yet fiery red with occasional pink undertones.

Finally, this focused form of gold, black, and red is enveloped by a mostly black ground that brings it to the fore. Along the top this black sea dissolves into a vertical pattern of alternating black and deep gray stripes.

The subtle manipulation of the square shapes into slightly trapezoidal ones is just enough to make the concentric rectangular quality of this composition to become asymmetric.