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Art in the SouthFemale Artists

Dusti Bongé nude watercolor of circus performer

By Chadd ScottPosted on June 27, 20210 Comments
Dusti Bongé nude: Untitled (Surrealist Nude Female with Tattoos)​, 1945 watercolor and ink on paper, 13 3/4" x 10”.
Dusti Bongé nude: Untitled (Surrealist Nude Female with Tattoos)​, 1945 watercolor and ink on paper, 13 3/4" x 10”.

For this week’s artwork in the partnership between See Great Art and the Dusti Bongé Art Foundation, we take a look at a Dusti Bongé nude: Untitled (Surrealist Nude Female with Tattoos)​, 1945 watercolor and ink on paper, 13 3/4″ x 10”.

Analysis of the Dusti Bongé nude watercolor comes from Ligia Römer, PhD, Executive Director at the Dusti Bongé Art Foundation, with offices located in Biloxi and open to visitors for discovery.

By: Ligia Römer

The circus offers an escape from reality, which it cannot achieve without its large cast of characters. These characters fascinate us, because they do things most of us would never be able (or willing) to do. We are all familiar with them: lion tamers, acrobats, contortionists, escape artists, clowns, fire-eaters, sword swallowers, and trapeze artists.

Then, at least back in the day, there would be another set of odd characters that were often part of the side show or
“freak show,”  including giants, conjoined twins, bearded ladies, and tattooed persons. All were part of the rich, highly surreal, visual delights the circus had to offer. And this surreal world intrigued and inspired Dusti Bongé. She painted many a circus scene during her surrealist years.

Here we have a blonde-haired, nude, tattooed lady covered in anchors, hearts, flowers, snakes, fish, doves and sundry tattoos. Whether she was a real character or a subsequently conjured figment of Dusti’s imagination hardly matters. What matters is that this tattooed lady captures the complete and utterly surreal spectacle that was the “freak show.”

What also matters is that Dusti Bongé in fact painted this character with great appreciation for her unique enchanting
qualities, and depicts her as a person full of joyous life. Dusti could actually both delight in, and at the same time respect, the strange beauty of this tattooed person. The way Dusti represents the tattooed lady is really not like a freak at all, but as a wonderful, almost imaginary being. This illustrates how artists both perceive and express certain things in a completely new light, thereby offering us a new way to see these same things.

In the 1950s, freak shows pretty much vanished, for various scientific and moral reasons. Today, some television shows offer the equivalent oddities for the insatiably curious. And of course, tattooed persons are no longer oddities.

Dusti BongéFemale artist

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A CLASSIC Julian Onderdonk #texas #hillcountry #bl A CLASSIC Julian Onderdonk #texas #hillcountry #bluebonnets painting, “Near San Antonio” (1918) at @sama_art. I have long said my dream den has an Onderdonk #bluebonnet painting. A Texan, he nailed the “feel” as only someone passionate for and intimate with that landscape could.
Following the bluebonnet painting are others from Onderdonk including from his time in New York, which I knew nothing about.
#visitsanantonio
Claude Monet and Joan Mitchell face-to-face about Claude Monet and Joan Mitchell face-to-face about 15-feet apart at @mcnayart @visitsanantonio #visitsanantonio.
McNay is one of my favorite small museums in the US, wonderful Modern art collection with MAJOR figures like these and many, many others (Hopper, Rivera, van Gogh, Gauguin, Modigliani, etc).
#monet #claudemonet #joanmitchell #modernart #painting
Helen Frankenthaler’s ‘Eden Revisited’ (1967 Helen Frankenthaler’s ‘Eden Revisited’ (1967-1976) sure to brighten your day, it did mine on a recent visit to @sama_art @visitsanantonio. Stunning, vivid, massive (10-plus-feet tall), expressive… up close you can see the paint stains. 
I see so much drama in this painting, so much certainty, confidence. Of all the past artists I could have met, @helenfrankenthalerfoundation would be high on the list.
#helenfrankenthaler #colorfieldpainting #greatwomenartists #femaleartist #womenshistorymonth #yellow #orange #painting #modernart #visitsanantonio
3 showstoppers from @_wiggins_ at @briscoemuseum @ 3 showstoppers from @_wiggins_ at @briscoemuseum @visitsanantonio. Kim’s mark making and color are instantly recognizable and I DIG it! 
#visitsanantonio #westernart #westernartist #santafe #cowboy #purple
Harold Newton (left) and Alfred Hair side-by-side Harold Newton (left) and Alfred Hair side-by-side at @tampamuseumofart. To learn more about the original Florida Highwaymen artist, click the link in my bio.
#floridahighwaymen #haroldnewton #alfredhair #florida #floridalife #floridaartist #floridaart #floridaartists #blackartist #floridahistory
OVERWHELMED by this exhibition of #purvisyoung art OVERWHELMED by this exhibition of #purvisyoung artwork on view at @tampamuseumofart! 
What most caught my eye were all the 18-wheelers. Are these a reference to “urban renewal” and the siting of I-95 through the heart of Young’s #overtown #miami neighborhood. 
As occurred across America during 1950s-80s, so-called urban renewal was a tactic used by white politicians to destroy thriving Black communities by running interstates through them to aide white suburbanites in getting to jobs in town faster.
Young experienced Overtown on both sides of #urbanrenewal and I can’t help thinking all these trucks are commentary on I-95.
#miamilife #tampa #tampaflorida #artmuseum #blackart #blackartist #blackartmatters #selftaughtartist
I was writing about @ronjonofficial for my “My F I was writing about @ronjonofficial for my “My Favorite Florida” column on Rovology.com travel site this morning. My first visit was 86ish, my most recent visit came last month. 
#ronjonsurfshop #ronjon #cocoabeach #cocoabeachflorida #surfing #surflife #80s #80sfashion
“Florida Highwaymen: Dashboard Dreams” closes “Florida Highwaymen: Dashboard Dreams” closes at @aebackusmuseum 2/26. Best chance all year to see original Florida Highwaymen paintings. 
More info about Highwaymen check link in bio.
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