Pioneering gallerist: Frank Watters

Getting old isn’t something we all do gracefully but Frank Watters doesn’t mind terribly much. Now a septuagenarian, Watters has spent the last 42 years at the helm of the eponymous Watters Gallery in Sydney and he’s philosophical about getting old – especially when he considers how others feel about the autumnal stages of life. “I remember having a terrible disagreement years ago with Richard Larter”, he says. “Dick was always on about ‘grizzly old farts’ and he’d made up his mind that he was going to shoot himself when he turned 40 and Pat actually rang me saying look, he’s serious. It was dreadful. I told him that I was actually looking forward to being old and that it was going to be the best time of my life. He just looked at me.”

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