Geoffrey Legge (b. 1935) and Frank Watters (1934–2020) ran Watters Gallery in Darlinghurst from 1964 to 2018. Watters grew up in a working-class milieu in Muswellbrook and left school at fifteen to work in the mines. Having developed an interest in art he moved to Sydney and found work with Barry Stern, one of the city's few commercial gallerists at the time. Legge was born in Uganda and educated at Charterhouse, Surrey, before coming to Australia, where he studied economics at the University of Melbourne. In 1963 he rented a house next door to Stern's gallery and began hanging around there; in due course, he and Watters decided to open their own gallery in Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst. Legge, deferring to Watters' more practised eye for art, insisted that the gallery be named Watters. In 1969 the gallery moved to a former pub in Riley Street, where it became an intellectual and artistic hub.
Anne Zahalka's photograph of the pair – part of her series of portraits of significant Australian art collectors – was taken at Watters’ flat, which occupied the rooftop of the gallery building.
Purchased 2021
© Anne Zahalka/Copyright Agency, 2024
Anne Zahalka (age 42 in 1999)
Geoffrey Legge (age 64 in 1999)
Frank Watters OAM (age 65 in 1999)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Naomi Cass, Director of the Centre of Contemporary Photography, in conversation with Anne Zahalka.
It takes a village to raise a creative! Get an insight into the often-unseen work and supporters needed for the arts to thrive. The work of art documents the creative process, evoke states of creativity and inspiration, and shows us clues about the subject’s own work from the way artists portray them.
