Portrait gallery names new chief

Sandy Nairne, one of the team behind Tate Modern, was named yesterday as the new head of the National Portrait Gallery.

He will succeed Charles Saumarez Smith, the director who has transformed the fortunes of the gallery and won himself a new role as director of the National Gallery on the strength of his record.

Mr Nairne, 49, is currently director of programmes at the Tate, where he has spent the past eight years working with its director, Sir Nicholas Serota, in founding Tate Modern and developing Tate Britain. He had been tipped as a possible head of Tate Modern when its first director, Lars Nittve, resigned last year, but that job went to a Spanish curator, Vicente Todoli.

Mr Nairne said he was delighted to be taking over. "Following the outstanding achievements of Charles Saumarez Smith, this is a great time for the National Portrait Gallery," he said.

Sir David Scholey, chairman of trustees, said there had been a strong list of applicants. But he said Mr Nairne had "considerable knowledge of British history and a wide range of experience" in both historical and contemporary arts. Mr Nairne has worked both as a curator and a writer, notably for the television series State of the Art in 1987. He helped to put on the first retrospective of Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs and exhibitions of 20th- century British sculpture.

His career includes stints at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, the Institute of Contemporary Art in London and as head of visual arts for the Arts Council. Before joining the Tate, he was awarded a senior research fellowship by the J Paul Getty Trust.

Dr Saumarez Smith leaves in July, to replace Neil MacGregor at the National Gallery, but Mr Nairne may not be free to take up the directorship until the autumn. Mr MacGregor is to be the new head of the British Museum.

Highlights of Dr Saumarez Smith's reign have included an exhibition on the art of the picture frame as well as the popular, and populist, show of Mario Testino's photographs. Visitor numbers have risen from 570,000 a year to 1.47 million, helped by the new £15.9m Ondaatje Gallery.