Fred WILLIAMS
Australia 1927 – Australia 1982
England 1951-56

Rudy Komon 1978
oil on canvas
signed lower right
203.5 (h) x 101.5 (w) cm
Private collection
© estate of Fred Williams

Rudy Komon represented Williams’s work from 1962 until the end of his life. Born in Vienna to Czech parents, Komon arrived in Australia in 1950. He came across as a larger than life character; a bon-vivant and shrewd businessman with an eye for the work of some of the best artists in Australia at the time.

Williams’s painting Rudy Komon is a striking, ambitious portrait. Dressed with a certain European elegance and flair, Komon stands tall with a circumspect expression on his face, weighing up the odds. The idea of his intense focus on the world of visual art is neatly summarised in the spectacles in his right hand. The imposing, full-length figure painted with a palette of predominantly grey and black recalls Williams passion for the work of the masters of the past, in particular Goya.