Bill Komodore, The Sun Paintings
The Carillon Gallery, Tarrant County College -South
5301 Campus Dr, Fort Worth, TX 76119
Currently on view at Tarrant County College South campus are Bill Komodore’s Sun Paintings. He first began work on this series about seven years ago. This series is a break from his traditionally figurative works and could be seen as a nod to his early teachers Mark Rothko and Hans Hoffman. They resemble the old school Color-Field paintings of the fifties and sixties. As you view the works you see that these are unique works in their own right and are not rehashing an older style. The Sun Paintings are about pure color which could be seen as a return to his early paintings when he was producing Op-Art paintings. The subject of the sun could be interpreted as part of his past since he is a native of Greece, where the sun was a significant symbol in early Greek culture and mythology.
When viewing the paintings you can tell that Bill Komodore has a pure love of the paint itself. You can tell by his brush strokes that they are there for a reason and that each one plays its part in the painting as a whole. He uses paints from Williamson that are made by hand from scratch. Each pigment is hand ground into the oil and that is what gives the richness and boldness to the colors in his paintings. When talking to him, you can tell that the love of the paint itself is just as important as the images he creates with the paints.
The first painting you see in the show, titled Porphry, 2005 (oil on linen), shows that Mr. Komodore has a love for paint. The richness of the cobalt violet that he uses reveals to the viewer just how powerful each brushstroke is. This painting also happens to be the one that he feels looks the best in the gallery.
Though it is a bit of a drive to get to the campus gallery (from Dallas anyway) it is well worth the trip to see the paintings. When being surrounded by the paintings you get the feeling that you are in the presence of a modern master. You see a love of paint and painting, color in a pure form, and a painter finding himself by reaching back to his past but still moving forward. There is a calming effect you feel while in the gallery. You get the feeling you are surrounded by the sunlight, as if you are standing on an open beach or an open field, and enjoying the warmth of the sun’s rays.
Thanks to Teresa Rafidi for the use of some of her photographs.
www.rafidiphotography.com
More useful links:
http://www.hanshofmann.org/
http://www.nga.gov/feature/rothko/rothkosplash.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op_art
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Field
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