They say time flies when you are having fun and that’s mostly true for Brisbane Art dealer Philip Bacon, who is celebrating 50 years in business.

Philip Bacon Galleries has been a shining beacon of culture in a city that was once regarded as culturally bereft.

The city has caught up and, as Bacon unveils a cavalcade of great art to celebrate, he reflects on his five decades in the business in the most logical way – by exhibiting more great art.

His 50th Anniversary Exhibition, now showing at his eponymous Fortitude Valley gallery, is a museum-quality show featuring art from four collections, including his own.

Works from Philip Bacon’s private collection will be officially opened on Saturday, February 17, by Dr Nick Mitzevich, Director of the National Gallery of Australia. That’s a mark of respect for Bacon, who is regarded by many as Australia’s premiere commercial art dealer.

Bacon opened his gallery in 1974 at the age of 27. He built his reputation slowly over the years and his success caused many southerners to ask the obvious question: How has he done this in Brisbane?

“My friends and clients in other cities, Sydney in particular, would say to me, why are you in Brisbane?” Bacon recalls when we chat at his gallery on the eve of the exhibition opening.

“A wonderful friend of mine, a property developer in Sydney said, ‘I’ll buy you a building here. You should be in Sydney’. But I was never really that interested. Brisbane was, and is, my home.”

And he has put Brisbane on the map in the minds of many people, although Bacon credits the Johnstone Gallery, which operated from 1950 until 1972, with blazing the trail for art in Queensland before him.

“We all owe a lot to the Johnstone Gallery,” Bacon says. “It was the most important gallery in Australia in its day and it was in Brisbane too.”

People are now less likely to ask him why he is in Brisbane now that the city has outgrown the stereotypes.

Over the years Bacon has exhibited some of the greatest stars in the firmament of Australian art – Brett Whiteley, Arthur Boyd, Fred Williams, John Olsen, Sam Fullbrook, Robert Dickerson, Margaret Olley, Jeffrey Smart, Wendy Sharpe, among others, and he has introduced us to a new generation of artists including Michael Zavros, Jun Chen and Robert Brownhall.

For his 40th anniversary Bacon mounted a show called 40 Years: 40 Paintings. He says that feels like yesterday.

His brief catalogue essay for the current show reflects on how time has whizzed by since then.

“In an essay I wrote in 2014 for the catalogue of the exhibition 40 Years: 40 Paintings, I ended with the sentence, ‘… lest this reminiscence starts to sound like a farewell, rest assured I am already planning the exhibition I have in mind for the 50th anniversary, just around the corner in 2024’.

“Now, seemingly in the blink of an eye, that corner has been turned and the exhibitions to celebrate 50 years of Philip Bacon Galleries are installed and ready to be viewed by all our visitors.”

“In conjunction with the selling exhibition Three Private Collections, I have brought from my home a section of the works I live with and enjoy, every day. These are not for sale, but I suppose give an insight into my personal taste. I was a collector before I was an art dealer.”

Among Bacon’s own private works you will see art by Justin O’Brien, Arthur Boyd, William Robinson, Jeffrey Smart, Rupert Bunny and others – 30 pieces in all that give us a window into his personal taste.

These works can be seen upstairs at his gallery, while downstairs there will be 50 works from three private collections – for collectors this is quite the opportunity to view a range of work, some surprisingly affordable.

You can snap up a Jon Molvig charcoal work for $1500 or a little Charles Blackman for $3500. Or if you have deeper pockets, Garry Shead’s modern masterpiece Creation, D.H. Lawrence at Thirroul, selling for $275,000, may be more your cup of tea?

Garry Shead’s modern masterpiece is worth $275,000. (Image supplied)

This will be something of a feeding frenzy for serious collectors, but Bacon says you don’t have to be a potential buyer to be welcome at his gallery. That’s because he has always been about sharing beautiful art with as many people as possible. He admits that the anniversary is “a very public exposure”.

“People have been very kind and said things like, ‘oh you must have been two when you started’,” Bacon says. “But, as the Americans say, do the math.”

He’s 77 now, in case you can’t do the math. I suggest he must have seen great changes in his five decades in the business. Well yes, and no.

“In some sense nothing much has changed,” he says. “People change and artists change but the concept stays the same, to bring people great art. Have I had 50 years in the business or have I had one year 50 times over?”

Now there’s a deep existential question, if ever I heard one.

Philip Bacon Galleries 50th Anniversary Exhibition, until March 9, Philip Bacon Galleries, Fortitude Valley

philipbacongalleries.com.au

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