Meet Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery

Meet Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery*, saviour of the infamously stolen Turner paintings as well as Van Dyck's last self-portrait.

By Fiona Scott Lazareff

8 Nov. 2014

“My principal role is to make sure that the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is properly programmed and functioning correctly so that we can welcome a large number of visitors. We are now receiving over two million visitors a year for the third successive year”.

But in addition to getting people over the threshold, he also has to make sure that the finance and economics add up. “Only 40% is government funded, so we have to find the remainder. I’m also responsible for chairing the Portrait Prize jury, though the final choice is collective. And then there is the almost continuous preparations for exhibitions. Finally, I help work on much of the fundraising: the patrons are both individuals as well as corporate partnerships”.

The NPG can’t charge an entrance fee for its permanent collection because of the government funding it receives. So I ask Nairne whether it might be a good idea to make a charge, as they do, for example, in France. Nairne answers: "We would probably lose 30% of our visitors if we did, which wouldn’t be good for the café and shop and could potentially diminish the sale of tickets to exhibitions".

I quiz him as to whether something that is free tends to cheapen it and he replies that  “landscapes and sex are both free and are nevertheless hugely enjoyable”. And he adds “I find it shocking that you have to pay to visit St. Paul's or Westminster Abbey”. But the government isn’t paying for their upkeep.

His mission for the NPG is to make it a “lively and engaging place and to broaden its appeal, including to international visitors. To date, it’s true that it’s not among the priorities for London tourists. It’s certainly not a coach party destination”.

Late opening on Thursdays and Fridays is a relatively recent initiative to increase the number of visitors, by appealing to people that may not be able to come during regular opening hours.

More formally, the NPG has its role set out by the Act of Parliament by which it was founded in 1856, which is “to encourage the understanding of history through portraits and the appreciation of the art of portraiture”.

Sandy Nairne modestly points out that he joined the NPG at the perfect moment, "just after the opening of the Ondaatje wing, which was built to coincide with the Millenium. The new wing allows more of the permanent collection to be displayed, enables us to commission more portraits and to acquire more historic pieces. It also allows for a wider range of artists, for example, Sam Taylor Johnson or Michael Craig-Martin, as well as some international artists. This year they managed to buy Van Dyck’s last self-portrait for £10m, with support from over 10,000 people.

“Another important and ongoing mission is research. The current Real Tudors: Kings & Queens Rediscovered exhibition is the result of seven years of research on Tudor portraiture." This spectacular exhibition will be moving to the Musée de Luxembourg in Paris, next March.

"We are also opening up a learning program and weekend activities with families in mind."

Like every other art institution or tourist attraction, the NPG is constantly trying to think of new ways of promotion. Hugo Boss sponsored the hugely popular David Bailey Stardust exhibition and coupled with the NPG budget so the exhibition could afford proper advertising - including, for example, on buses - with the result that more than 155,000 visitors paid to come to the exhibition.

Promoting the permanent works is more difficult since, as admission is free, there is less of a marketing budget. But recently “we have managed to draw attention to it with things you wouldn’t normally know about”. Take Lord Kitchener's portrait for example. He created his own sock design, which included a square-ish 'grafted' toe. The toe featured a seamless grafting stitch that made socks more comfortable for troops to wear, and which became known as the ‘Kitchener stitch'.There are also press opportunities. For example, it was the NPG that recently cleverly commissioned a glamorous portrait of actress Olivia Colman in tuxedo and bow tie.

“I use my cultural background to help select the exhibitions and it's my job to balance the program, but we have an exhibition committee and curators", says Nairne. "My role is to look at the overall mix of the program. Next October there will be a Giacometti portrait show led by Paul Moorhouse who has built links with Giacometti collections and foundations. My job also involves building relationships. Our Picasso portraits exhibition in 2016 means we are collaborating with the Picasso Museum in Barcelona because that’s where most of Picasso’s early works are, and few of these have ever been seen in London before”.

But Nairne is stepping down in February 2015, so what happens then? “The trustees are in the process of selecting a replacement and are hoping to have made an announcement by the end of the year, but in the meantime, the deputy director, Pim Baxter, will support the transition. I have got a good team in place and the future exhibitions are very well advanced", he says. 

Sandy Nairne has two obvious big achievements: finding the Tate’s stolen Turner paintings eight and a half years after their disappearance in Germany is one of them but, as he says, “is a slightly negative one. My really positive achievement was to lead the campaign to raise the £10m to buy the Van Dyck self-portrait for the NPG. When you’re raising money, you have no idea whether you will succeed. We had a wonderful team at the Gallery and with the Art Fund, we relied heavily on social media and created a microsite that was updated the whole time. It took six months. Of course, getting our patron the Duchess of Cambridge to be photographed in front of it was a great help”.

Leaving a post which many people would kill for must surely leave Nairne with some regrets. But not at all. He is convinced that his twelve-year stint is a “cycle”, and it’s time for somebody else to come in for the next one. Besides, he has big plans for the future.

They include organising a companion piece to Bill Viola’s installation at St Paul’s Cathedral and support for Maggie's Cancer Care Centre which provides advice and support for cancer patients with centres designed and donated by architects, including Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid and Richard Rogers He will also be chairing the Clore Leadership Programme, which recognises the enormous need for management skills in the world of culture. A subject in which Nairne is clearly an expert.

*Mr. Nairne was in office at the NPG from 2002 to 2015.