Robert Nicholas CullinanOBE (born 29 December 1977) is an art historian and curator. On 6 January 2015, he was appointed the 12th director of theNational Portrait Gallery in London,[1] a post he began several months later.[2] It was announced on 28 March 2024 that he had been appointed Director of theBritish Museum.[3]
Cullinan was born in December 1977 inConnecticut, United States, to British parents. He moved to Britain aged 4 or 5 years, and grew up inHebden Bridge,West Yorkshire, England.[4][5] He was home-schooled. He received hisBA,MA, andPhD in art history fromThe Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Between 2001 and 2003, while a student, he worked as a visitor services assistant at the National Portrait Gallery, where he was later appointed director in 2015.[6]
Cullinan's partner is Mattias Vendelmans, a Belgian art dealer and founder in 2023 of the Vendelmans gallery in London. He lives inOval, London, andMargate in Kent.[7][8]
From 2006 to 2007, he held theHilla Rebay International Fellowship atGuggenheim Museum Bilbao,Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, andPeggy Guggenheim Collection.[2] From 2007 to 2013 he was curator of international modern art atTate Modern.[1] He then joined theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New York City as its curator of modern and contemporary art.[1] In 2014, he co-curated an exhibition ofHenri Matisse's cut-outs at Tate Modern with SirNicholas Serota.[4] The exhibition attracted more than 500,000 visitors.[9]
Cullinan was appointedOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the2024 New Year Honours for services to art.[10] He is a trustee of Chatsworth House Trust.[11]
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