Important Australian Paintings exhibition on now at Philip Bacon Galleries in Queensland

It’s likely Australia’s richest commercial art gallery exhibition right now with $10 million worth of masterpieces up for grabs at Philip Bacon Galleries.

Art dealer, Philip Bacon, will be holding a sale of nearly $10 million worth of major Australian works at his gallery, Philip Bacon Galleries. Picture: Matthew Poon

It is likely Australia’s richest commercial art gallery exhibition right now and it’s on at Philip Bacon Galleries in Brisbane.

Philip Bacon, whose gallery on Arthur Street in Fortitude Valley is regarded by many as Australia’s best, has represented all the greats of Australian art, with his latest exhibition featuring $10 million worth of treasures.

These are the sorts of works you will generally only see in an art museum but, through Bacon’s impeccable connections, he has been given the task of selling some major masterpieces at the Important Australian Paintings exhibition on now through to March 25.
Among them include a suite of paintings by the late great Fred Williams, revered for his landscapes.

“We’ve sold all the Williams works already,” Mr Bacon said.

“That’s $5 million worth of art. The prices sound like a lot but it’s not about the money. He is our master and his works are mostly unattainable now.”

The Fred Williams painting, Yellow Landscape, Lysterfield I, which sold for almost $2 million at Philip Bacon Galleries in Brisbane. Picture: Carl D Warner

Bacon is close friends with Williams’ widow, Lyn, who has released these works from the estate of the artist. They are stunning and Yellow Landscape, Lysterfield 1 (1970-71) is almost transcendental in its beauty.

While the price for that painting is not listed in the catalogue, we can reveal it sold for almost $2 million to a private collector.

Bacon said Williams, who died in 1982, was very fond of Queensland and he and his wife loved visiting the state’s Far North where he famously painted the rainforest.

Lyn Williams, widow of the late Fred Williams, with Philip Bacon from Brisbane’s Philip Bacon Galleries, in front of a 1974 painting titled ‘Forest Pond.’ The Fred Williams painting sold for almost $3 million in Brisbane in 2018. Picture: Steve Pohlner/AAP.

“The works in this exhibition are from various sources,” Mr Bacon explained.

“Some of them come from clients who have been with me for 50 years and they are either moving on to smaller residences or to that big art gallery in the sky. The Rupert Bunny in this show (on sale for $195,000) was in the collection of Lady Trout.”

There are works by our own living master, Brisbane artist William Robinson. His 1990 painting ‘Rainforest’ is on sale for $420,000.

Robinson is one of the only artists we know who has had a museum dedicated to his work while still alive – The William Robinson Gallery at Old Government House, within the Gardens Point precinct of the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane.

Fig Tree Hole, by Paddy Bedford in 2004, is one of the works on sale in the exhibition Important Australian Paintings at Philip Bacon Galleries in Fortitude Valley in Brisbane.

The catalogue to this show is already a collector’s item itself and has gorgeous colour plates of the works with full details of the provenance of the various pieces.

There are works by Ray Crooke, Jeffrey Smart, Rover Thomas Joolama, Hugh Ramsay, Ian Fairweather and Jon Molvig.

There are also more contemporary artists, such as Bacon’s rising star, Michael Zavros and Sunshine Coast artist Lisa Adams, whose meticulous realist pieces are keenly awaited by collectors.

One of the hero pieces is a gorgeous 1979 work by Lloyd Rees of Sydney Harbour. It is entitled ‘Infinity’ and has sold for $245,000 already although the exhibition only opened on Tuesday.

The 1979 masterpiece ‘Infinity’, by Lloyd Rees, sold for $245,000 at Philip Bacon Galleries. Picture: Carl D Warner

Rees is often claimed by Sydney, the city where he made his name, but he was born in Yeronga in Brisbane in 1895 and attended Ironside State School and Ithaca Creek State School in Brisbane’s inner west.

After formal art training at Brisbane’s Central Technical College, he commenced work as a commercial artist here in 1917. He died in 1988 at the age of 93.

Another masterpiece, which has been snapped up already for $465,000, is ‘Meeting the Donkey’ by the enigmatic Ian Fairweather, who lived a hermit like existence on Bribie Island in his later years.

There is also a work by Charles Blackman and a magnificent Lake Eyre painting by John Olsen that has been snapped up for an undisclosed sum.

Bacon said anyone interested in Australian art would be welcome to come in to his Fortitude Valley gallery to browse. No pressure.

WHAT: Important Australian Paintings exhibition

WHERE: Philip Bacon Galleries, 2 Arthur Street, Fortitude Valley

WHEN: Now through to March 25