Week #6, Shown at the Betty Parsons Gallery II

Untitled (White, Yellow and Black Abstract), 1956. Oil on Masonite, 36” x 48”.

Our second example this month of work by Dusti Bongé shown at the Betty Parsons Gallery (BPG) is this powerful piece. It was Included in Dusti's first solo exhibit, titled simply Dusti Bongé: Paintings, April 30 - May 19, 1956, at the BPG. This was thus a debut solo exhibit for Dusti that, notably, received positive reviews in the New York press. And positive reviews are hard to come by!

This painting offers an excellent example of how Dusti could achieve a vibrant tableau with limited colors and vigorous brushstrokes. Broad swaths of variegated yellows and totemic whites are juxtaposed and in high contrast to almost receding blue marks and decidedly calligraphic black forms. There is a rhythmic pattern to the almost exclusively vertical gestures, and hence the whole takes on a kind of processional quality.

We have two of the 1956 short reviews Dusti received in the press in our archives. One reviewer mentions her “calligraphic shapes” and “daggers of white paint”, clearly referring to her bold gestures, whereas another refers to her work in general as being “of considerable authority and inventiveness.”

Like so many of Dusti’s works, this painting too is one where we have been unable to confirm what its original title may have been. Although it must be listed on the 1956 Betty Parsons price list, the items on it are all identified only by title with no other information. However, the confirming evidence we have that this work was indeed part of the exhibit comes from a very faded old colored slide of the 1956 show, also in our archives. You never know, we might yet be able to figure out its original title.