Bongart is admired for his richly colored and emotionally expressive landscapes, still lifes and portraits.
He studied art in Kyiv, Prague, Vienna and Munich, before emigrating to the United States in 1948.
He taught a number of aspiring young painters who later became well-known, nationally collected American artists—among them: Peter Liashkov, Del Gish, Sunny Apinchapong, Ron Lukus, Rulon Hacking, Melinda Miles, Patricia LeGrande Bongart, Susan Greaves, James Dudley Slay, Don Sahli, Ted Pressett, George Phillips, Guido Frick, Ovanes Berberian and S.Burkett Kaiser In 1969 he established an art school in Idaho.
That happened in a Hospital near Geneva in Switzerland, where the hope was, to save his life with a cell therapy.
Bongart's work is featured in prominent museums, and has received many awards, including a 1982 Gold Medal from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame for his oil painting entitled "Spring Evening."