Week #34, Ideograms IV

Untitled (Black Abstract Composition w/Brown), 1950, mixed media on paper, 10 ½”" x 8”.

Our final work on paper by Dusti Bongé in this series of surreal and abstract, East-Asian calligraphic pieces, presents an arrangement of forms, rather than one dominant single element.  Together they may convey more meaning than a single ideogram might, but who’s to say. It also presents a very muted palette.

What really sets this work apart from the previous ones, is that there is not one commanding centralized black form. In fact, there are four separate black elements, each with their own weight and presence. Although there is an abstract element at the center of the work, it does not dominate the whole. Instead, the principal shape is situated along the left edge of the composition, extending almost its full length. This predominant form is comprised mainly of a broad vertical stroke with intermittent horizontal and angled extensions out and toward the center.

The relationship of this large form to the unidentifiable shape at the center. suggests it is gently arcing toward it, as if shielding it from outside forces. A light brown wash coming down in a swoop from the upper left to the center bottom completes this protective gesture of the dominant form. It in turn has a smaller swoop of black curling down with it. Finally, there is one small, curved, floating form that fills in the upper right quadrant and completes the whole.

As such Dusti creates a very evenly balanced, but completely asymmetrical, composition, allowing each form to flow freely yet interacting with the others.