Bringing the Art to You Week #38 September Storm , 1955 , O il on Masonite, 36” x 48”, Paul Bongé Collection Living on the Gulf Coast or East Coast, every year starting in June we are all vigilantly watching weather reports as tropical storms form off the coast of West Africa and track their way across the Atlantic, through the Caribbean and into Gulf of Mexico or back toward the Atlantic. As you receive this E-news, the Gulf Coast of Florida is bracing for Hurricane Ian. Our hearts go out to all in Florida, may you all be safe! Dusti Bongé, having grown up and lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast most of her long life, was no stranger to this annual seasonal rhythm. She lived through storms even before they were named: starting as early as in 1906 and 1916 when storms made landfall on the eastern edge of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the Hurricane of 1947, Hurricane Ethel, 1960, Hurricane Betsy, 1965, Hurricane Camille, 1969, Hurricane Elena,1985. She also drew inspiration from them. As a true artist she found the beauty and mystery in all aspects of her environment and experience. Just as in her early works she drew inspiration from her immediate surroundings, so in her abstract expressionist years, she often found a way to capture the unique qualities of the place through the experience of memorable yet ferocious events. In this work, her bold aggressive gestures capture the fierceness of the stormy skies and the sea. The color palette, with its emphasis on dark colors interspersed with bright jagged strokes, reveal an experience that cannot be described in words, a savage energy and beauty that can only be witnessed. It is interesting to note that some of her early works captured places subsequently destroyed by the very hurricanes that inspired her years later. Coming soon: Kinship: Dusti Bongé and Betty Parsons at Hollis Taggart Ocober 13, 2022 - November 12, 2022 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)
