Week #20, KeyHole People II

Untitled (Surrealist Figure Playing the Piano), c.1945, mixed media on paper, 11 ½” x 9”

Dusti Bongé’s surrealist artworks featured recurring elements and themes. This is of course a quintessential aspect of surrealism, beyond its overarching ideas of the virtue of dreams and the subconscious, and the disdain for reason. Many of the artists had their own chosen elements such as birds, clocks, windows, eggs, hats, etc., which all typically held some kind of symbolic or mythical meaning for the individual.

Dusti’s own surrealist creations, from the Circus Series to the Keyhole People, and the transitional works in between, all presented aspects of her unique main themes, which were inspired in one way or another by the fantastical nature of the circus, or the enigmatic nature of people, respectively. But within these larger themes there were various recurring motifs running through her pieces including slightly amorphous representations of pianos, trees (or alternatively, cacti), ships, angels, the sea, and little white birds.

This work depicts a slightly wavy figure in black against a backdrop of warm colors and subtle patterns. The figure stands, almost floating, surrounded by a pale gray atmosphere and accentuated by a swirling green s-curve emanating from a green squiggly pattern above her, enveloping her, and culminating behind her in an enigmatic second black form with red curls coming out of its top.

On the one hand, our main character appears to be tickling the keys of a piano- like form. But on the other hand, given that said piano also looks suspiciously like a boat with a red sail, about to sail off into the distance, she might just be waving it off.