National Portrait Gallery Announces New Director

As the curtain goes down on Director Sandy Nairne’s fantastic time at the NPG London, which brought us Lucian Freud portraits and David Bailey’s Stardust, we tell you everything you need to know about his fresh-faced successor, Dr Nicholas Cullinan.

Born in Connecticut, but raised in Yorkshire, Dr Cullinan is the first ever non-British born Director of the National Portrait Gallery and the second youngest (at 37 he was just pipped to the post by Sir Roy Strong who was 32 when he became Director in 1967).

Dr Nicholas Cullinan by Jackie Neale

In a wonderful sense of destiny, Dr Cullinan actually worked at the NPG as Visitor Services Assistant when he was but a bright-eyed MA Courtauld Institute of Art student. He went on to make a name for himself at Tate, working alongside Sir Nicholas Serota to bring us the incredible sell-out 2014 Matisse exhibition. He then went on to move to New York where he was lured by the position of Curator of Modern and Contemporary art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

With Cullinan taking the helm, we can’t wait to see what is in the future for this influential museum in London.

Meanwhile, around the corner at the National Gallery, the jury is still out who will replace Nicholas Penny, who also retired in the summer. Candidates rumoured to be in the mix are Director of the Van Gogh Museum, Axel Ruger; Head of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Met, Luke Syson; and former National Gallery curator and Deputy Director of the Prado, Gabriel Finaldi. We’ll just have to see which rising star of the art world bags this top position…

Love the NPG? Check out Culture Whisper’s previews for the upcoming NPG Audrey Hepburn and John Singer Sargent exhibitions.