Nicholas Cullinan Excels in National Portrait Gallery Revamp

Nicholas Cullinan's rehang of The National Portrait Gallery's permanent collection exemplifies how great curatorship can be key to an institution's success.

Much can be said of architect Jamie Fobert's £41.3 million structural facelift of the London museum—which includes a new Trafalgar Square facing entrance, revived hidden passages, and a rooftop restaurant. But ultimately, it's the art on display that will bring in crowds and keep the museum relevant.

Cullinan took the role of director in 2015 (after successful stints at Tate Modern and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art), and re-energised the museum with an engaging programme that has spotlighted hard-hitting artists through a universally accessible lens.

Critically acclaimed contemporary artists such as Cindy Sherman, Elizabeth Peyton, and Tacita Dean have all enjoyed solo exhibitions under his direction, which speaks to his curatorial shrewdness, and the direction he is willing to take.

Among upcoming shows, we're looking forward to The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure (22 February–19 May 2024), featuring artists such as Michael Armitage, Lubaina Himid, and Kerry James Marshall.

This concern for diversity is at the core of the Gallery's approach to its exhibitions and permanent collection. 'We're meant to reflect Britain as it is, and obviously, if your collection only represents a fraction of Britain, then that's a problem,' Cullinan told The Evening Standard.

The new Gallery opens with 45 portraits by Tracey Emin representing 'every woman' that have been drawn and cast on the entrance doors in bronze. What follows is Britain's history traced through the permanent collection from the Tudor period to the present day.

Era-defining moments and breakthrough discoveries include a sculpture of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, along with Maggi Hambling's beautifully animated portrait of Nobel Prize-winning chemist Dorothy Hodgkin.

Reflecting multidisciplinary contributions to the nation's culture, the collection also includes representation of defining musicians, architects, and authors through photography, sculpture, and other art forms.

Among these is Ida Kar's poignant photograph of novelist Doris Lessing, and a portrait of Roald Dahl when in the Royal Air Force, prior his career as an author of children's literature.

Photographs of revered pop icons from The Beatles, Elton John, and Bananarama set the tone for the 1960s and 80s, rolling into the stars of 1990s Brit pop and art, including The Spice Girls, The Prodigy, and Sonia Boyce.

With a revised and long overdue spotlight of women in this history, 48 percent of the portraits in the 20th and 21st-century galleries feature female sitters.

Of these, there's much to swoon over in 'Contemporary Conversations', showcasing Chantal Joffe's spectacularly frank Self Portrait with Esme (2008), Marlene Dumas' Amy Winehouse ('Amy-Blue') (2011), and Toyin Ojih Odutola's large-scale portrait of the much-loved author, Zadie Smith.

While harder, albeit not impossible given Katy Hessel's recent rewrite, Cullinan has ensured that even the traditional rooms have been injected with this much-needed spirit.

Hanging upon royal blue upholstery, Elizabeth Peyton's portrait of African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass is positioned alongside William Wilberforce's by portraitist Sir Thomas Lawrence, bringing a refreshing angle to a room of Georgian and Regency portraits.

Two photography exhibitions, Paul McCartney, Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm (28 June–1 October 2023) and Yevonde: Life and Colour (22 June–15 October 2023), complement the National Portrait Gallery's grand reopening, further bridging past and present.