Rudy Komon

Rudolph John Komon MBE (21 June 190827 October 1982) was a Viennese–born Czech–Australian art dealer, gallery director, benefactor and wine connoisseur. He had a great influence on the burgeoning artistic life of Australia in the 1950s and 1960s.

Life Komon was born in Vienna in 1908, to Czech parents, and his family later moved to Berlin. After school he was a journalist for a Czech language newspaper, and in 1938 he moved to Czechoslovakia itself and joined the resistance, while ostensibly engaged in journalism and art dealership. After the Communist takeover of his country in 1948 he escaped to Switzerland, then migrated to Australia in 1950, settling in Sydney.

He opened an antique store in Waverley,

Honours Komon was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), Member (Civil) for the Arts on 2 June 1973.

He was also known as a bon vivant and connoisseur of wine. From 1956 to 1976 he was Cellarmaster of the Wine and Food Society of New South Wales, and from 1959 to 1979 he judged wine at shows in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra. Smith had previously entered a portrait of Rudy in the 1973 Archibald Prize.