Dusti Bongé

Born Eunice Lyle Swetman, Dusti Bongé (b. 1903) was Mississippi’s first Abstract Expressionist painter, known for her dramatic, vigorous, and textured canvases. Bongé’s artistic output covered a variety of subjects and categories, including her Surrealist Circus series, and her Abstract Expressionist Void paintings which focussed on abstract circular forms and illustrating the idea of emptiness. Bongé established a strong relationship with Betty Parsons, the influential Abstract Expressionist dealer who represented the artist for three decades.

Bongé studied acting at the Lyceum Arts Conservatory in Chicago. Her work is held in many public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Mississippi Museum of Art; and the Heckscher Museum of Art, New York. The Dusti Bongé Art Foundation was established in 1995 to honour and promote the artist’s extensive and impressive oeuvre.

Bongé died in 1993.