Piercing the Inner Wall: The Art of Dusti Bongé
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Ogden Museum of Southern Art 925 Camp Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130

Dusti Bongé
"Windows"; oil on masonite, from the Paul Bongé Collection.
The American South—with all its mystery and history and natural, wild beauty—has long been a rich subject of artists worlds over. But in Mississippi in the 1930s, only one artist was consistently representing her home in the abstract. The Ogden Museum of Southern Art's newest exhibit, opening April 11, presents the work of Mississippi's first modernist artist, Dusti Bongé in a collection called Piercing the Inner Wall, curated by Bradley Sumrall. The exhibit draws together paintings, drawings, and sculptures inspired by the Mississippi Gulf Coast, New Orleans, and the New York School, in figurative, Cubist, Surrealist, and Abstract Expressionist styles, that cumulatively tell the story of Bongé's career and contribution to American Art after World War II. The exhibit will be on display from April 11–September 8.
On April 13, the Ogden Museum of Art will host a panel discussion discussing the collection and its significance, featuring curator Bradley Sumrall as moderator, author of Dusti Bongé, Art and Life: BIloxi, New Orleans, & New York and Director Emeritus of the Ogden Museum J. Richard Gruber, Ph.D, the artist's grandson Paul Bongé, and fine art appraiser and private art dealer Amanda Winstead. The panel will conclude with an audience Q&A and book signing. Free. 2 pm–3 pm.