Week #33, Ideograms III

Untitled (Abstract Calligraphic Form), 1950, ink on paper, 12" x 9".

Our third work on paper by Dusti Bongé in this series of surreal and abstract, East-Asian calligraphic pieces, presents an ideogram that, despite its abstractness, makes it hard to resist our innate tendency to seek the familiar in the foreign. One almost can't help but see this form as reminiscent of a human figure.

In this work the centralized black form is set against a background of bright yellow and a deep reddish brown wash. The way these colors are horizontally striated across the width of the paper suggests a dark earthy ground plane with a clear horizon line, below a bright yellow backdrop. In both the top right and bottom right quadrants, the yellow and brown fields are reversed.

Dominating the whole is the dynamic black form that seems to dance across the page. With just a few broad brushstrokes, four to be precise, Dusti here manages to energize the entire composition with this joyous figure. And, although the form has a bilateral quality, it is not remotely symmetrical. Its two right extensions reach well into the top brown and bottom yellow quadrants, while the left extensions remain contained it the main striated background. 

Again here we clearly witness Dusti's command of the Japanese sumi-e way of painting. Each brushstroke forming the ideogram is very loosely curvilinear, clearly the result of a singular confident movement of the brush. Moreover, each mark is made on just enough of a wet base to allow its tiny capillaries to bleed beyond the edges of the mark. This softens the appearance of the figure just a bit.