Watters Gallery (1964–2018) was a private art gallery in Riley StreetSydney, Australia, run byFrank Watters (1934 – May 2020) with his business partners and friends Geoffrey and Alex Legge. It was influential and well-known, hosting exhibitions and works by some of the most prominent non-mainstream artists in Australia of the 20th and 21st centuries, includingTony Tuckson,James Gleeson,Richard Larter,Robert Klippel, andGarry Shead.
The gallery was opened on 18 November 1964 in Liverpool Street inDarlinghurst by formercoal miner, Frank Watters. As a gay man in an era when coming out of the closet was dangerous, Watters had painted a picture titledHe's a Queer!, but never shown it in the gallery, keeping it turned to the wall in his bedroom instead. He painted very little after that one, because it scared him.[1]
The gallery moved in 1969 to a former pub in Riley Street, in the heart of what was then thered light district, that was built in the 1850s.[1]
It was among the first Sydney galleries to showavant-garde sculpture, including that ofBob Klippel, and allowed artists to choose what works to put on show. This was a point of difference from many other galleries.[1]John Peart's work was also exhibited at Watters, from when he first arrived in Sydney fromBrisbane as a teenager, to the end of his career.[2] The gallery supported him through a radical change of direction in style, even when art investors did not.[1]
The gallery also representedMarr Grounds, co-founder of theTin Sheds in Sydney, whose first solo exhibition,Morphological structures, was held at Watters in 1975. He said that he was "treated fantastically" by Watters. Watters also sold works byImants Tillers andAleks Danko.[3]
ArtistTony Tuckson, formerly aSpitfire pilot and later deputy director of theArt Gallery of NSW (AGNSW), was a great champion of the gallery, and the final exhibition there was dedicated to his work.[1]
Watters Gallery finally closed its doors on 24 November 2018, after 54 years, with Frank Watters' collection of around 150 paintings and sculptures to be auctioned by Shapiro Auctioneers in 2019.[1]
Frank Watters died in May 2020.[4]
For its 50th anniversary, an exhibition was held at theS. H. Ervin Gallery in Sydney, entitledFive Decades at Watters Gallery. Presentations and discussions were held by Watters Gallery artistsEuan Macleod,Reg Mombassa (aka Chris O'Doherty),Ann Thomson,Joe Frost, as well as curator and art writerGlenn Barkley, and Sonia Legge, who discussed the future of the gallery.[5]
Before the gallery closed, Watters offered two senior curators from AGNSW to pick any works from his collection that they wanted. They chose 32 works, collectively valued at over A$1m, including a huge painting byRichard Larter of his wifePat Larter with her genitalia expose, calledFive in a Row Show.[1] He also donated his archive to the AGNSW Library.[4]
An exhibition atUniversity of Technology Sydney Gallery, entitledThe Watters' Gift was held from 20 May to 17 July 2020), recognising Watters' legacy, after he had donated 67 works by 27 Australian artists to the university, which was most significant gift in its history.[4]
This is an edited transcript of a recorded interview.
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