Bringing the Art to You Week #17 ‘Grand (sic) dame of arts' reflects on career as artist, actress , Newspaper clipping 1983. Bongé Family Archives Dusti Bongé’s 1982 book The Life of an Artist brought a lot of renewed interest in her life and her art, especially regionally. She was featured in multiple newspaper articles and she personally visited classrooms and distributed the books to students. In conjunction with the book, Mississippi Public Broadcasting made a documentary film Dusti Bongé: The Life of an Artist , for which they won an international award. You can see it here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOyn-al6hao . In this article, the writer, Bonnie Bomboy (what a great name) states "Dusti Bongé is known as the grand (sic) dame of the arts.” And indeed Dusti was the doyenne of the arts on the Gulf Coast, although she herself would have been way too modest to ever claim so. Having had a forty-plus year career at that point, and having shown her work in numerous venues across the country, she was a prominent, experienced artist and a highly respected, distinguished and much loved member of her community. And she would continue to live up to this title for another decade until her passing in 1993, a decade during which she created an amazing body of work. Ms. Bomboy wrote ”Her paintings, some vivid and alive with color, some subdued but fresh and meaningful, carry a message that is vital to the life of the artist.” Now here we are forty years after the publication of her book. We are glad to share once again the life of this artist, the vital message of her art, and to bring this grande dame to the fore. Her life and her oeuvre are both expansive and her title of grande dame is well deserved. Have you seen this work? Do you or someone you know have this work in their collection? If so, we would love to hear from you. We are continuously working to maintain as complete a record as possible, and to determine the location of all of Dusti Bongé's work. If you have any information on this work, you can contact us at
[email protected] We also appreciate receiving referrals to the existence and whereabouts of artworks by Dusti Bongé. Thank you. Available in our store: The definitive volume on artist Dusti Bongé, by J. Richard Gruber Dusti Bongé, Art and Life: Biloxi, New Orleans, New York Hard bound, 12” x 9”, 350 pages, over 500 color and b&w illustrations Limited edition lithographs of two original Dusti Bongé drawings. Shrimp Boats & Factories, Back Bay Biloxi I and Shrimp Boats & Factories, Back Bay Biloxi II 12” x 16” drawing, 15” x 22” paper size https://www.dustibonge.org/store.html support us Our mission: to promote the artistic legacy of Dusti Bongé (1903-1993)
