Director Nicholas Cullinan Diversifies a National Collection

T he newly transformed National Portrait Gallery, which will reopen in central London on 22 June after a £35.5 million refurbishment, has two essential principles: openness and light. The most striking external change in Jamie Fobert Architects’ scheme is a new entrance, providing step-free access through the grand Renaissance-style facade facing north to Soho – “a proper entrance and arrival”, as the Gallery’s director Nicholas Cullinan puts it.

The building, which has been embellished on various occasions since it opened in 1896, will be restored to its previous form with the reinclusion of the East Wing, once part of the museum, providing more gallery space. Ewan Christian, the building’s original architect, “was ingenious with daylight”, but his vision was lost over time with roof lights and windows covered. This approach is “about trying to take the building back to its original beauty”, Cullinan says.

Although there will be two opening exhibitions – one on Paul McCartney’s photographs from 1963–64 and the other on the early 20th-century work of the pioneering British female photographer Yevonde – the big focus is the collection, which will be rehung “from top to bottom”, Cullinan says. The “famous, well-loved, iconic images” will be there, but “we’ve been working really hard over the past few years to make sure that we’re adding other voices”, he explains.

Among the initiatives is the three-year Reframing Narratives: Women in Portraiture project with the Chanel Culture Fund, started in 2021. For works post-1900 in the galleries, portraits of women have since risen from 25% to 48% of the entire collection. Opening up, shedding new light: the new National Portrait Gallery aspires to be a truly contemporary organisation.

“The portrait, jointly acquired by the National Portrait Gallery and the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, is unique in both British and world culture and yet has never been in a museum collection. Now it has the potential to be in two, one facing the Pacific from where Mai – who sailed from his home country of Tahiti to England with British explorer James Cook in 1774 – came, and the other only yards from Reynolds’s studio, where it was painted.”

“From Wearing’s Spiritual Family series, this shines a light on the artists who have inspired her. The new galleries will have more space for the display of both our contemporary and historic photography collections. It’s really important to me that visitors will be able to view works like this in the context of the medium’s history.”

“One of five self-portraits by female artists acquired in 2022 as part of our transformative Reframing Narrative: Women in Portraiture project. It is the first painted self-portrait by a Black female artist to enter the collection – and a work that I cannot wait to see on our walls.”