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The partnership between See Great Art and the Dusti Bongé Art Foundation continues into 2022. I have been intrigued by Bongé’s artmaking since coming across an exhibition of her work at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans back in 2018. Each week, Ligia M. Römer, Executive Director of the Dusti Bongé Art Foundation in Biloxi, MS will share insight with us regarding a slice of Bongé’s career. This week, a Dusti Bongé New York art exhibition.
“Water, Water Everywhere!,” Contemporary Arts Brochure, 1939
This year we will continue “bringing the art to you.” However, we will also intersperse the artwork with other images, stories, photos, anecdotes and information related to Dusti Bongé, her art, and her life.
Here we have a fold-out gallery brochure from 1939, announcing an exhibit at the Contemporary Arts gallery in New York. This was the first time Dusti Bongé had her works exhibited, as part of a group show, at a gallery in New York. This was a remarkable accomplishment considering that this was only a few years after she had seriously started pursuing art in 1936. It was a bright beginning to a long and successful career spanning almost six decades
The exhibit was called “Water, Water Everywhere!,” and included two works by Dusti, called Trawl Boats and Back Bay, as you can see listed in the second image. This was of course during the time that Dusti spent many hours honing her skills sketching her surroundings, as she made her way through her hometown of Biloxi.
These two works no doubt were compositions depicting the waterfront and harbor scenes that Dusti often revisited and which she always depicted with her deep understanding of the place capturing its vibrant, messy, yet charming, nature.
What do you think?