Week #29, Seafood Industry III

Dusti Bongé, Boat at the Dock, verso of Self Portrait, c. 1936-1939, pastel on paper, 11 ½” x 8 ½”.

This week’s Back Bay Biloxi scene is quite interesting. For starters this work is en verso of one of the iconic self-portraits Dusti Bongé created during her early years. It is of course not clear which drawing came first. Both are executed in pastels and neither side is signed or dated. Moreover, this drawing features some familiar seafood industry themes presented from a different view, as well as some new elements.

Clearly, it has a combination of the familiar piles, piers, masts, water, and of course boats, although in this case just one. And these items are all featured together in Dusti’s typical slightly haphazard way. Yet, some of these are presented in a much different light. Thus, for example the ubiquitous boat is here presented as a major object in the foreground, significantly more prominent than boats in most of her other compositions. It fills the frame almost from top to bottom and at least halfway across.

Then there are some unique elements such as the prominent presence of the overhead rigging and the nets on the shrimp boat, which run in a horizontal band all across the page slightly receding toward the left. And finally, there is the one bright red pick-up truck in the center left, loaded with what looks like large ice blocks. Cars are indeed extremely rare in Dusti's Biloxi scenes.

But perhaps the most salient unique aspect of this particular work is that it does not present us with a bird’s eye view perspective of the overall scene like so many of Dusti’ s waterfront depictions and cityscapes do. This suggests that it is likely one of her very earliest works, when she was still trying to find her own signature cubist voice.