Bringing the Art to You Week #32 Paul Bongé, Dusti Beside Tall Space Sculpture Painting 1982, photograph, Paul Bongé Collection Today, August 9th, is Dusti Bongé’s birthday and she would have been 119 years old. We are lucky that she lived the long and prolific life she did, as it awarded us with her many gifts of spectacular art. Hers was a life well lived. In this candid photograph from 1982, taken by her grandson Paul Bongé, she is standing beside one of her so-called "space sculptures", of which she created a whole series in the early 1960s, and which were exhibited at the Betty Parsons Gallery in 1962. This particular space sculpure titled Fever Dream had multiple canvas surfaces that were painted in bright hues of blue and green and yellow. The piece was so large that in correspondence back and forth with the gallery it was determined that the work was too large to fit in the gallery. At 85” tall and approximately 46” wide it would not even fit thorugh a standard door. And although the space sculptures ultimately were not a long lasting trend, they were very innovative in how they extended the painter’s canvas into multiple dimensions. Here, standing next to this sculpture 20 years later, Dusti, a mere 79, appears as vital as ever, clearly enjoying a moment of merriment and undoubtedly getting ready to produce another masterpiece. And in fact, she did just that, creating treasures in all sizes for almot a decade longer up until 1991. We are grateful for the legacy she left. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUSTI! 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 continually working to maintain as complete a record as possible, and to determine the location of all of Dusti Bongé's work. If you have information on this, or other works, you can contact us at
[email protected] We appreciate receiving any referrals to the existence and whereabouts of artworks by Dusti Bongé. Thank you. You can now view some of these works on our website: https://www.dustibonge.org/missing-works.html 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)
