Komet, 1941-2022

Komet was born in 1941 in Çorum, and studied between 1960 and 1967 at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts, where he attended the studios of Halil Dikmen and Zeki Faik İzer. He was expelled in 1963, but returned to the academy some two years later thanks to the intervention of Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu. The artist, whose real name is Gürkan Coşkun, was inspired by the US rock band Bill Haley & His Comets to change his name to Komet. He went to Paris on a government scholarship in 1971 and has been working in Paris and Istanbul ever since.

Komet is one of the leading exponents of a critical-political approach to figuration that developed after 1970. In his early paintings, the artist depicted phenomena such as migration, the individual, and power relations through large groups of figures, but occasionally created fantastical atmospheres. In compositions that tend toward dark humor, human imagination and imagery, and the subconscious, Komet’s figures and spaces are usually situated within transparent layers of color, and the artist allows coincidences to come into play during his painting process. He has been interested in literature since his youth and has published poetry, which in turn led him to investigate philosophical concerns.

“Untitled” is an earlier painting that Komet produced after his graduation but before going to France. Although the composition seems dominated by black, other, more vivid colors in the details draw attention. Bringing various figures together, the artist conveys social psychology and reality with a fictional edge. A woman in a yellow bikini is in front of a window, while her surroundings and the other figures remain a mystery.