{"id":124594,"date":"2025-09-09T07:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T07:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/124594\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T07:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T07:01:08","slug":"the-national-gallery-announces-new-wing-and-move-into-modern-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/124594\/","title":{"rendered":"the National Gallery announces new wing and move into modern art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gabriele Finaldi could be forgiven for nipping off for a two-month break to read about medieval English art, as he is about to do. After all, the director of the National Gallery has just hosted a year-long celebration of the museum\u2019s bicentenary, an acclaimed revamp of its Sainsbury Wing and a comprehensive \u2014 and great \u2014 rehang of the entire collection.<\/p>\n

But before he heads to Massachusetts, Finaldi has an important announcement to make. Today he is unveiling Project Domani (\u201ctomorrow\u201d in Italian, perhaps a nod to his heritage) \u2014 a new wing that will open up the gallery\u2019s north-south axis, between Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square. An international architectural competition to design the most significant new museum building in central London since the Tate Modern extension, Switch House, launches this week.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not all. Today the National Gallery also announces a change to its collecting and display policy. No longer will the museum limit itself to works created before 1900, as was agreed (pretty informally, it turns out) at the turn of the millennium between Neil MacGregor, then director of the National Gallery, and Nick Serota, then director of Tate \u2014 two big beasts taking pains not to tread on each other\u2019s toes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very nice to be thinking about the future after the bicentenary,\u201d Finaldi says as he leads me to a hidden bench on the bridge where the Sainsbury Wing meets William Wilkins\u2019s original 1838 building. Our view is a jumble of the Sainsbury, the Wilkins and St Vincent House (known as SVH), a tired 1960s building behind the gallery that houses a hotel, rented office spaces and the gallery\u2019s technology-in-exhibitions department.<\/p>\n

SVH was acquired at the end of the Nineties \u201cwith a view to future development\u201d but plans have crystallised as part of an ambitious masterplan commissioned in 2018. The architectural competition will run to October 17, with a shortlist announced on November 28. The gallery hopes to announce the winner in April next year and open the new building in the early 2030s.<\/p>\n

Any fears that fundraising would be compromised by the refurbishment of the Sainsbury Wing have been comprehensively allayed by the astonishing sum already pledged, \u00a3375 million, which includes the two largest publicly reported single cash donations to a museum or gallery anywhere in the world: \u00a3150 million each from the Crankstart Foundation (the charitable foundation of Sir Michael Moritz KBE and his wife, Harriet Heyman, who have funded the Booker and International Booker prizes since 2019) and the Julia Rausing Trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt turned out to be the other way around,\u201d Finaldi says. \u201cThe confidence that you can have in an institution, I think, was only raised by the success of the bicentenary year. These are absolutely extraordinary gifts and they express a remarkable confidence in the National Gallery and our plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are huge, huge donations, of a different order to anything we\u2019ve seen before. We\u2019re still absorbing the significance of it and we\u2019re very conscious of the responsibility that places on us to do something significant and, of course, very long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Read more art reviews, guides and interviews<\/a><\/p>\n

The other \u00a375 million is coming from the National Gallery Trust, the gallery\u2019s chairman of trustees John Booth, and other donors who wish to remain anonymous. Project Domani\u2019s final cost will \u201cdepend on what kind of building emerges\u201d but, for comparison, the V&A East Storehouse, London\u2019s most recent museum development, was costed at about \u00a363 million when it was announced (the final figure has yet to be confirmed).<\/p>\n

The National Gallery\u2019s NG200 refurbishment project cost \u00a385 million. The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, an entirely new building also built in the centre of a historic city, cost about \u00a3100 million. If the National does need to raise more, Finaldi has said he doesn\u2019t have red lines (the British Museum has been criticised for accepting \u00a350 million from BP for the renovation of its Western Galleries). When I spoke to him in July<\/a> he didn\u2019t rule out taking money from any sector except \u201cthe porn industry\u201d, adding, \u201cWe take it on a kind of case by case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tate is on board with the shift to exhibiting post-1900 art, Finaldi says. A working group of trustee and curatorial representatives from both organisations has been set up, according to a statement from the Tate director, Maria Balshaw, \u201cto determine the ways in which we can collaborate to further the national collection as a whole\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Cubist<\/p>\n

Fruit Dish, Bottle and Violin by Picasso; the gallery will add significantly to its collection of post-1900 art<\/p>\n

SUCCESSION OF PICASSO\/DACS\/THE NATIONAL GALLERY LONDON<\/p>\n

In any case, it\u2019s not as if the National hasn\u2019t paddled in modern waters before, with commissions such as the magnificent Paula Rego that hangs in the Sainsbury Wing restaurant and exhibitions about the influence of Piero della Francesca on David Hockney. There are already 25 post-1900 works in the collection, including a couple by Picasso and four by Monet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a museum of painting, not a museum of art in general \u2014 it\u2019s natural for us to want to continue telling the story of painting,\u201d Finaldi says. \u201cUltimately it\u2019s for the benefit of the national collection and for the UK public. We work very closely with sister institutions but there are opportunities for us to do more together.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says that \u201cgiven the cost of the kinds of works that we\u2019re talking about\u201d \u2014 20th-century masters are notoriously pricey \u2014 the increasingly popular wheeze of co-acquisitions, such as that of Joshua Reynolds\u2019s Portrait of Mai by the National Portrait Gallery and the J Paul Getty Trust, will form part of their strategy. And if the collection is to grow, \u201cwhat we\u2019re very clear about is that we need space for pictures,\u201d Finaldi adds.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tempting brief for any architect, a simple one that offers significant freedom. \u201cIt will develop as time goes on but it\u2019s about creating display space, about making good use of daylight, about building something which is distinguished and beautiful,\u201d Finaldi says. \u201cIt\u2019s about something that recognises the importance of the setting and of the surrounding National Gallery buildings. That\u2019s essentially it, at the moment.\u201d It\u2019s not quite it: Finaldi adds that he would like to \u201cincorporate some kind of energy centre that could benefit the entire estate\u201d.<\/p>\n

There is also the impact of a site that spans 2,295 sq m \u2014 just a little less than the Sainsbury Wing \u2014 on the public space that surrounds it. \u201cYou can\u2019t just think about the inside, you have to think about what a development of this kind can do for this bit of central London,\u201d Finaldi says. The road behind the gallery \u201cis essentially a rat run for taxis\u201d.<\/p>\n

There are plans, led by Westminster Council, to develop the area, which also includes the National Portrait Gallery and is fringed with theatres, as an arts quarter, he says (though it\u2019s not as yet entirely clear what that means). \u201cAnd we want to play a significant role in that. This is an important part of town \u2014 the opportunity to turn it into prime cultural urban space is very exciting.\u201d]]<\/p>\n

There is a hope, he says, that the new building might allow easier access to works that are at present in store. There was a minor furore recently when the art dealer Angus Neill complained that his donation, a Christ Carrying the Cross attributed to the workshop of the 15th-century Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini, was no longer on display following the recent rehang. Neill told The Times\u2019s Richard Morrison that he had obtained assurances at the time of the donation that the picture would remain either \u201con permanent public display\u201d or \u201creadily accessible as part of its reserve collection\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Painting<\/p>\n

Christ Carrying the Cross, attributed to the workshop of Giovanni Bellini, was recently removed from display<\/p>\n

All the National Gallery\u2019s holdings are stored on site, Finaldi assures me, and can be accessed by appointment by any member of the public if it is conservationally safe to do so. \u201cBecause these pictures belong to the UK public. They have a right to see them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neill\u2019s donation \u201cis here\u201d, he adds. \u201cIt\u2019s being looked after and it will be on show at some point in the future. I can\u2019t say when but pictures are not necessarily always on display on the main floor unless they\u2019re great masterpieces.\u201d Finaldi manages not to make this sound pointed.<\/p>\n

For him, the thrill of the new announcements is tempered in the nicest possible way by his own plans: an unorthodox but well-earned study break at the Clark Art Institute in Massachusetts. After ten years in post, and a period of enormous change, he\u2019s champing at the bit to spend a precious few weeks having a change of pace.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s timed it well. There are now about 1,000 paintings on display at the National Gallery, up from about 600, while the redevelopment has precipitated a 60 per cent increase in visitors since May. Nobody wants another Louvre (too big, too many people), but this new development could supercharge visitor numbers and London\u2019s economic and cultural heart. So Finaldi can trot off on his sabbatical with some satisfaction, and a lot of excitement for the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gabriele Finaldi could be forgiven for nipping off for a two-month break to read about medieval English art,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-124594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}