Bill Komodore: Poetry in Paint

Space through Color is the unusual title of a text that Bill Komodore submitted in fulfillment of his degree requirements at Tulane University in 1957. To illustrate his theories the art student produced a set of paintings with large areas of pure color to demonstrate the spatial properties of certain hues to project or recede in the viewer's mind. He identified these abstract exercises, however, with titles from classical literature (e.g. The Chariot of Phaëton) or in reference to contemporary events (e.g. the liberation of Cyprus).

While it is difficult to imagine the Dallas painter that we know today working in a non-objective mode, the teaching of Hans Hoffman and Mark Rothko had a profound impact, and their influence can still be seen in the artist's reliance upon thin and thick layers of specific pigments as an expressive tool, especially in his large canvases. It can also be seen in his desire to imbue form, be it color or shape, with specific meaning; Rothko, for one, never viewed his art of superimposed rectangles of color as purely abstract. Of no less importance to the artist's formation, however, has been the example of the modern Italian still-life painter, Giorgio Morandi, whose subtle manipulations of chiaroscuro within the architecture of ordinary vessels impart an infinite range of meaning.

Bill Komodore's mastery of painting techniques, gained over forty some years of practice, liberates his art from the limitations of non-representation and allows him to use hue and tone to express a range of feelings. It has also allowed him to explore the richness of a sensibility rooted in a passion for life, especially his favorite pastimes—gardening, cooking, and fishing—and his deep love of literature. In fact, the artist's fusion of poetic feeling with his skill as a painter and watercolorist makes his art as effective in terms of pure form as in relation to content.

The subject matter of Bill Komodore's art is seemingly limitless. He begins his paintings by laying in color. And only later, working intuitively with forms, shapes, and colors does he delve into his imagination and introduce a figure or symbol to express a feeling or thought. Thus, there is no dichotomy between his non-objective and figurative impulses. Colors like red and black have qualities of their own but they also have symbolic value: they are hues of tragedy. Similarly, when he paints an object such as an old broom, he makes the domestic accessory real and tactile, yet endows it with a spiritual or transcendental meaning by recalling the Irish proverb in which the old broom possesses the faculty to know the corners where the dirt and, by association, meaning lie.

One often wonders how folk tales and proverbs—not to mention ancient myths and sacred stories—come to play such an important role in Komodore's art. His achievement as a still-life, landscape, and portrait artist, so manifest in his works on paper, cannot be underestimated; his ability to capture a likeness or render a scene, even from memory, is unequalled. And Komodore, does not view any of these traditional categories as a minor genre, in the strict sense of classical art theory. All the same, he wants his painting to tell a story, in a word to be metaphorical. Invariably he introduces a symbol or sign that bears a message, whether universal or mundane; he does this not to elevate his art but to fix it in his own personal experience.

As a child Komodore smuggled books from his uncle's library by Dostoevsky, Flaubert, and Victor Hugo, as well as Virgil, Ovid and other classical authors. Since Greece at the time was under German occupation, there was nothing else to occupy him, with the possible exception of dismantling enemy machine guns, bombs, and tanks, for which the British awarded him a medal when the country was liberated. He has vivid memories of seeking shelter from enemy bombardments in urns on the roof of his house. For that reason a clay vessel still remains a symbol of security, and he collects them avidly, often including them in his paintings as human forms without the intrusion of limbs or facial expressions.

Often ambiguity and complexity of this sort are misunderstood. Bill Komodore is, if nothing else, a realist. He deals with paint in the firm knowledge of its use by artists of the past—from Titian, Velázquez, and Goya to Picasso, Matisse, and Rothko. He treats subject matter in the same way that a poet uses words: to create a language that bears meaning beyond mere representation. While we may not always comprehend the meaning of his works, there can be no doubt that they remain relevant to the art of our time and the issues of our day, be they political, social, or intensely personal. Bill Komodore communicates a message of well-being and hope within the framework of life's unceasing vicissitudes. For artist and non-artist alike, his art provides a source of inspiration as well as nourishment, both intellectual and emotional.

Edmund P. Pillsbury, Ph.D.
C.E.O., Pillsbury and Peters Fine Art