Week #13, Thinking in Color V

Dusti Bongé, Untitled (Bright Multicolor and Black Abstract Form), 1987, watercolor on paper, 9” x 6”

Our concluding piece for this month's Thinking in Color series presents us with a rainbow of colors. In this work Dusti Bongé truly expresses the fact that she loves all colors in a work that is suffused with different intense colors. Despite their bright intensity the whole nonetheless comes together in a subtle composition, that draws you in.

On a watery wash of gray Dusti constructs what is basically one single, centralized, nebulous form that is unevenly segmented into various smaller amorphous forms. The larger form and its segments are all defined by washed-out, smokey black outlines. Along the outer left edge of the overarching form is a green highlighted area that is both bright yet ephemeral. This green is created by washes of blue and yellow which give it an almost diaphanous presence. And yet in all its ephemerality it also seems to be a shadow cast by the main shape.

Within the main shape the blue and yellow are each prominently featured. The various uneven segments are divided into two blue ones, two light pink, one tiny dark pink, one yellow, one small orange, and a sliver of green. Then there are three very small segments that are almost whitish, where the light gray background just barely becomes visible.

There is no obvious system, rhythm, or pattern here. And yet, combining the fields of green, blue, yellow, and pink, and accenting them with the little moments of intense fuchsia and orange, Dusti here does what she does best: She brings together colors in a way that makes them “sing.” And this is one hell of a fascinating and unexpected tune!