Week #23, Muted Palette II

Untitled (Gray Forms with Blue and Black), 1983, watercolor on paper, 8” x 5”

In this work by Dusti Bongé we see once again her mastery in using a muted palette. As the parenthetical title indicates, here too we have only a few colors, and they are all either dark or gray. And once again, Dusti somehow manages to make these dull colors vibrant.

The composition features several gray figures, almost like building blocks or bricks, precariously stacked in an arrangement that resembles a structure with two columns and a lintel. Although the gray blocks themselves have a weighty quality, they are nonetheless floating against a deep, shadowy, dark blue background. This creates an interesting incongruity between the solid, structural nature of the block and their suspended placement in a sea of blue, with no sense of gravity, horizon line, or other perspectival hint. Thus, on the one hand Dusti employs very concrete shapes, arranges them in a systematic way and then undoes that by not anchoring them.

Each block is unique in shape, but all are roughly quadrilateral and thus similar enough to be considered together. Mostly gray, they have uneven black accents along their short ends and are, seemingly accidentally, highlighted in light blue or white along all sides. All together it is an enigmatic composition that despite its spare palette use is saturated in color.