Now considered one of Australia’s greatest art patrons Philip Bacon reflects on a life changing moment

He is one of Australia’s greatest patrons of the arts, a dealer and philanthropist with friends in high places. Philip Bacon can still pinpoint the moment he knew he’d made it, but his rise to prominence has not been without some troubled moments.

It was the moment Brisbane art dealer and philanthropist Philip Bacon knew he had made it. But it was also a moment fraught with a certain sense of insecurity.

Sitting in Row G at the Sydney Opera House not long after being appointed to the board of Opera Australia in 1994 a little voice inside his head said: “What are you doing here you little fake?”

Chatting to Bacon in his office at Philip Bacon Galleries in Fortitude Valley the man who is now considered one of Australia’s greatest art patrons reflects on that moment and smiles.

“It was the opening night of Julius Caesar and it was the first performance I attended as a board member,” Bacon recalls.

“There I am, sitting with Donald McDonald and the then executive director of Macquarie Bank, David Clarke and all sorts of other luminaries. It was all pretty thrilling but I was thinking about how I would justify my existence.”

Philip Bacon at Philip Bacon Galleries. Picture: David Kelly

Fast forward a couple of decades and we think he can say he has done that.

In fact Bacon, 72, a member of the Order of Australia (AM) since 1999, is still on Opera Australia’s board of directors (he did have a break at one stage but returned) and now chairs the Opera Australia Capital Fund which is seeking to raise $20 million by 2020. Under Bacon’s stewardship that figure has already been exceeded and the fundraising continues.

As a board member he’s happy to dip into his own fortune and asks others to do the same.

“As chairman that’s where I do most of my asking,” Bacon says. And who could say no to him?

He has charm, wit, a genius for friendship and his involvement in the arts has made him confidante to many in high places. Ros Packer is a close friend and Bacon has dined at Buckingham Palace with Charles and Camilla.

This Brisbane art dealer’s business is often cited as Australia’s finest commercial gallery and he is also now one of our most lauded philanthropists.

This year alone he has received three awards for his philanthropy.

Bacon was named the Queensland Community Foundation’s Philanthropist of the Year for gifting $1.8 million annually to over 20 charities in Queensland.

In July he was named as Philanthropy Australia’s leading philanthropist for 2019.

And that same month he was inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame in front of 800 guests at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre.

Bacon confesses to being a reluctant debutante as far as public honours go.

“It’s a bit embarrassing,” he says.

“But you can’t refuse these things. That would be churlish. To get three awards over several months was surprising. The one I was most astonished by was the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame. There I was alongside Wallace Bishop Jewellers, Evans Deakin Industries and others. For someone in the arts to be recognised with them is pleasing.”

A young Philip Bacon (standing up) with artist Margaret Olley, Tim Storrier and Jeffrey Smart.

Bacon is a worthy recipient and while his business is centred on the visual arts he spreads his philanthropy and time across genres and sits on a number of boards including the Brisbane Festival where he is deputy chairman.

Some productions at this year’s festival would not have happened without his largesse.

He says he is happy to help and has been doing so.

“When you get involved with these organisations you know the risks and costs and you think … maybe I can help,” Bacon says. “I guess I am invited on to boards with an expectation but that’s never overt. But it should be. Some board members say it’s their time that is valuable but if that’s the case and they don’t want to give any money maybe they should go and do something else.”

Bacon’s philanthropy is strategic, targeting things he is passionate about – QAGOMA, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and others. As a single man who is successful at business he wants to share.

“My business has gone well for years, I have a house and a car and I can travel whenever I want,” he says. “ If I was saving my money what would I be saving it for?”

Some of the exhibitions at his gallery pull in millions. A Jeffrey Smart show in 2007 netted more than $10 million.

Last year a Fred Williams painting sold for $2.5 million at his gallery and a recent Margaret Olley exhibition netted around $3 million.

That one was a bit nostalgic because Olley, who died in 2011, was a friend and one of the artists who helped him make his name when he started up back in the 1970s.

He opened his eponymous Fortitude Valley gallery in 1974 with the help of a loan from a friend after an apprenticeship under Keith Moore at the Grand Central Gallery in Brisbane’s CBD.

The Bacons were from Victoria originally, moving to Queensland when Bacon was a teenager. After a brief stint in Bundaberg they settled in Brisbane. Bacon went to high school at De La Salle, Scarborough and started buying art.

“Don’t ask me why,” he says. “We didn’t have much of a collection at home. But that’s how I got started.”

He worked at Grand Central Gallery on Saturday mornings at first, went on to study law at the University of Queensland and when he dropped out his businessman father (who didn’t think there was a career in art) got him a job in finance.

“He got me a job with AGC (Australian Guarantee Corp) and my first posting was Dalby,” Bacon recalls. “I hated it. My memory is that I was there for a year or two but I looked it up and it was only six weeks.”

His father’s death, from cancer, freed him to follow his passion for art.

At the time he was a regular visitor to the famous Johnstone Gallery at Bowen Hills which represented some of Australia’s leading artists.

“Then the Johnstone Gallery closed in 1972 and artists began approaching me, suggesting I should open my own gallery,” Bacon recalls.

“I had people like Bob Dickerson and Lawrence Daws asking so I rented this property. I was in my mid 20s and didn’t know what I was in for.”

Bacon opened with an impressive show in 1974 featuring work by Daws, Dickerson, Charles backman and Michael Kmit.

“I don’t think I could do that today,” Bacons says. “There is so much more competition for a start.”

The location of his gallery, on the corner of Brunswick and Arthur streets in Fortitude Valley, was a bit dodgy so Bacon initially gave his address as New Farm.

“I stretched the suburb boundary by a street,” he says.

Philip Bacon at Philip Bacon Galleries. Picture: David Kelly

He is still in the same location, it is a tad more salubrious now, particularly after a major 2001 renovation by award-winning architects Cox Rayner.

In some ways Philip Bacon Galleries is almost an art museum with a stockroom any state gallery would envy.

Bacon represents some of Australia’s finest artists and is now one of Australia’s leading arts identities.

Having lived in the rarefied world of the arts for decades, rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous, he should have a few stories to tell, shouldn’t he?

Surely it must be time for a memoir, I venture.

“Oh no,” Bacon says. “I know too much.”