OCEAN SPRINGS, MS.- The Walter Anderson Museum of Art (WAMA) announced its newest exhibition, Dusti Bongé: Modernist of the South, on view from June 11 through November 30, 2025. Comprising 24 works on paper, canvas, and Masonite from public and private collections across Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, the exhibition celebrates the life, legacy, and expansive body of work of Dusti Bongé (1903 – 1993), a pioneering force in modernist painting. Her roots in Biloxi, Mississippi, deeply infiuenced her dynamic, expressive style.

Dusti Bongé is recognized today as one of the foremost Southern modernist painters of the 20th century. The artist experimented widely throughout her career, exploring Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, among other movements. Her work features imagery of the region, morphing throughout her lifetime to refiect representations of the artist’s experiences, dreams, and visions. The WAMA presentation includes depictions of vernacular architecture and maritime activities associated with Gulf Coast life alongside abstract compositions providing a distinctive selection drawn from her diverse oeuvre.

A central aspect of the exhibition is the exploration of Bongé’s personal and creative relationship with Walter Anderson. Anderson met Dusti’s future husband, Archie Bongé (1901-1936), as students at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1924. Their friendship continued to fiourish when the Bongé family moved to Biloxi in 1934. Each artist would create work profoundly infiuenced by the coast’s natural and built environments in their own unique ways.


Dusti Bongé, Ghosts of the Sea, 1958. Oil on canvas, 46 1/4 x 26 1/4 in. Paul Bongé Collection. © Paul Bongé.

“Wedding Vase with Bouquet is a beautiful example of the creative exchange between Dusti and Archie Bongé and Walter Anderson,” said Mattie Codling, Deputy Director and Curator of Exhibitions at WAMA, who organized the exhibition. “The Bacchante Vase, carved by Anderson and gifted to the Bongés as a wedding present, becomes more than just an object—it’s a symbol of friendship, inspiration, and shared artistic vision.”

The Walter Anderson Museum of Art is honored to present this exhibition in partnership with the Dusti Bongé Art Foundation (DBAF), which is presenting a complementary exhibition in their Biloxi gallery curated by Ligia M. Römer, DBAF Executive Director. Celebrating the 30th anniversary of DBAF’s establishment, the exhibition is on view through September 30, 2025. Hollis Taggart, New York, exhibited a selection of her Surrealist works January 9 through March 15, 2025.

Dusti Bongé (née Eunice Lyle Swetman) was born in 1903 in Biloxi, Mississippi—a thriving seafood port city and resort destination she often depicted in her artwork. After graduating from Blue Mountain College, she moved to Chicago to study acting. In the 1920s, she worked as an actor in Chicago and New York, appearing on stage and in silent films. In 1928, she married painter Archie Bongé who encouraged her natural abilities as an artist. Their son, Lyle, was born a year later and the family moved to Biloxi in 1934, where Archie built a studio. In 1936, he succumbed to ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Dusti found solace in the studio and devoted herself to painting.

Within a few years, Dusti’s work went on view in 1939 at the Contemporary Arts Gallery in New York City. Her art career advanced dramatically when she joined the roster of the renowned Betty Parsons Gallery. An artist and art dealer, Parsons was an early champion of the New York School and pioneers of Abstract Expressionism which was becoming a leading infiuence in the art world. In 1956, Dusti received her first solo exhibition at the Gallery, placing her in a select group of artists that included Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, Robert Rauschenberg, Mark Rothko, and Clyfford Still.

Continuing to be shown at Parsons Gallery until 1975, Bongé was a strong voice in the New York art scene for three decades. Yet, she mostly remained in Biloxi where she continued to produce new work until two years before her death, in 1993.