A trip to New Orleans is never quite complete without a visit to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, famous for its collection of vernacular art. In addition, the museum hosts temporary exhibitions and the latest titled Vicinal Visions: Dusti Bongé, Ida Kohlmeer & Dorothy Hood features three women artists born at the beginning of the 20th century in the South of the United States. From affluent backgrounds, all three pursued their artistic calling, following studies at reputable institutions, the Rhode Island School of Design and the Arts Students League of New York for Dorothy Hood, the Newcomb/Tulane College and the Hans Hoffman School of Fine Arts in New York City for Ida Kohlmeyer while Dusti Bongé was encouraged by her husband to skip art school and paint. While travelling, both Kohlmeyer and Hood became interested in the art of Central and South America. Hood's vacation in Mexico extended to a twenty-year stay. There she befriended intellectual and artistic luminaries, among them Jose Clemente Orozco, the poet Pablo Neruda, Rufino Tamayo and the famous couple Kahlo-Rivera. At some point the three artists found themselves immersed in the unescapable art circles of New York City where they mingled with Surrealists and Abstract Expressionists. Bongé was represented by the famous Betty Parson Gallery, Hood moved to Manhattan to study in the late thirties and visited the City frequently after her move to Mexico. They eventually returned to their birthplace mostly for personal reasons: Bongé to raise her son in Biloxi, Mississipi, Kohlmeyer solidly anchored in New Orleans kept a foot in New York City and Hood returned to Houston in 1961 where she taught at the School of Art of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, as she cared for her ailing husband. The exhibition curated by Bradley Sumrall, Curator of the Collection, showcases paintings from the permanent collection of the museum locally called the Ogden, last name of its founder.
My first encounter with Hood's paintings was a revelation. Time seemed to stand still in the quiet gallery and surrounded by five abstract landscapes, I simply allowed myself to bathe in their colors. The paintings project a profound serenity reaching spiritual levels, a deep connection with nature translated through sky to ocean blues, murky bayou greens or the muted colors of an uncertain sunrise. The large expanses of colors are not flat, they are enlivened by gentle caresses of the brush and by geometric or biomorphic shapes providing the illusion of depth. Illuminated Earth (c. 1970) was inspired by the Landsat views of the earth which Hood compares to her own compositions, and she sums up her travel to Florence with a predominant burnt Sienna in Florence in the Morning (c.1976). The five paintings were made upon her return from Mexico, while back in Houston. Along the wall leading to the other side of the gallery, a sample of her collages started in the early 80s, Shards of the Earth (c.1980's) is an assemblage of fragments from earlier earthy-toned paintings and a woven piece of fabric featuring Mexican motives, like piecing her past together. One drawing summarizes her life-long practice (at least until the mid-70s), the foundation and complement to her paintings. It provides a smooth transition to Bongé 's two surrealist watercolors and on the other side of the partition wall, her paintings. Bongé veered to an unmistakable abstract expressionism with Circles Penetrated (1952) and Sails (c.1955) in sync with her peers at the time. Further, two semi-abstract landscapes from the late 1950s and 1960s take a distinctly Southern turn, capturing the palpable, mysterious atmosphere of the swamps. The limited display overlooks her productive later years, including her delicate watercolors on Joss paper and her vibrant pieces about the void, most likely reflecting the museum's holdings.
Ida Kohlmeyer takes over the exhibition with her works filling the remaining space of the vast gallery and spilling into the hallway. Widely recognized for her public sculptures in the crescent city, ten key works summarize her practice influenced by the Abstract Expressionist Hans Hofmann and the Color Field style of Mark Rothko who spent two months as a visiting artist-in-residence at Tulane University's Newcomb Art School. She also mingled with the Surrealists in Paris and adopted similar compositions made of grids filled with pictograms. Back home in festive New Orleans, her glyphs and symbols took a joyous, colorful pop flair as illustrated by four of her paintings from the 80s.
The exhibition wall texts deserve a special mention. They contribute to the quality of the show by providing pertinent biographical details, quotes from the artists, and in-depth analysis of each work. However, their length feels better suited for a catalogue or exhibition brochure which would enhance its impact and preserve its legacy.
The three Modernist artists are hailed as visionary pioneers of abstraction in the South, a well deserved recognition that limits their broader reach. Their creations warrant a much wider audience and looking back a more prominent place in art history.
photographs by the author:
-Dusti Bongé "Sails", c.1955
-Dorothy Hood "Untitled", c.1972
-Ida Kohlmeyer "Signs and Symbols 85-1", 1984
-Dorothy Hood "Preceptors", c.1970
