BILOXI, MS.- Dusti Bongé Art Foundation (DBAF/the Foundation) is presenting a new exhibition of 40 watercolor, ink, and tempera works by the celebrated Mississippi modernist that have never before been on public view. The prolific and pioneering Dusti Bongé (1903-1993) continually experimented with color, figuration, abstraction, composition, and various genres throughout her long career.

Thinking in Color: Selections from the Vault offers a vibrant showcase of Bongé’s later oeuvre inspired by the natural beauty of her native Gulf Coast, her dreams and visions, life experiences, and her deft use of color to communicate and engage. Several works feature references to her interest in Zen Buddhism which she had encountered in the 1950s through friends, like the gallerist Betty Parsons, in New York and investigated further in the 1980s.

Organized by DBAF Executive Director Ligia Römer, PhD, the selection of intimately scaled works on paper from the Foundation’s collection celebrates the dramatic spectrum Bongé explored in her later work, ranging from vivid pinks and reds to jade greens to moody blues and grays.

Romer said, “Dusti Bongé much preferred making art in her Biloxi studio over talking about it. She did not want to get ‘literary’ about her art-making which she considered pointless. And yet, over the years, among the few pointed comments she did make about her own work, several were centered around the theme of color. In fact, she said she thought in color. Mentally and emotionally, she also made distinct associations with colors that were unique to her, such as conveying suffering with yellow hues.”

The exhibition is on view January 20 through May 30, 2026, Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm with free admission.

Dusti Bongé

Born in 1903 in Biloxi, Mississippi—a thriving seafood port city and resort destination—Dusti Bongé (née Eunice Lyle Swetman) was the youngest of three children of a prominent banker. 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. Archie built a studio in their backyard but succumbed to ALS (or Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 1936. While raising Lyle and grieving for Archie, Dusti Bongé assuaged her grief in the studio and devoted herself to painting.

She initially exhibited in New Orleans and Biloxi until 1939, when her work went on view 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 in midtown Manhattan. 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 influence in the art world. In 1956, she 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 1976, 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.

The Dusti Bongé Art Foundation

The Dusti Bongé Art Foundation (DBAF/the Foundation) promotes the artistic legacy of Dusti Bongé, Mississippi’s pioneering Abstract Expressionist painter, through exhibitions, conservation, scholarship, and education. Established in 1995 in Biloxi, the artist’s hometown, the organization preserves and promotes her extensive and impressive oeuvre and is dedicated to increasing public awareness of and access to her work.

Since its inception, the Foundation has been engaged in advancing scholarship about the artist and cataloguing and conserving her artworks in its collection including the development of a digital catalogue raisonné to debut in 2028. In addition to placing several significant works with national institutions including the Mississippi Museum of Art, Morris Museum of Art, and National Museum of Women in the Arts, DBAF organizes exhibitions and provides loans to art institutions. Its on-site gallery showcases selections of work that explore Bongé’s evolution from her earliest representational landscapes and portraits to experiments with Surrealism to her Abstract Expressionist masterworks. The Foundation’s holdings include an extensive selection of her work in a variety of media, including oil and acrylic paintings, watercolors, pen and ink sketches, mixed media works, tempera on paper, and ceramics.

For more information, please visit dustibonge.org.