Alexander "Sandy" Nairne

Alexander Robert "Sandy" Nairne CBE FSA (born 8 June 1953) is an English historian and curator. From 2002 until February 2015 he was the director of the National Portrait Gallery.

Nairne is the son of senior civil servant Sir Patrick Nairne, attended Radley College and studied at University College, Oxford in the early 1970s and rowed for the Oxford University second crew Isis.

Nairne came into contact with Nicholas Serota, while working at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford in 1974–76.

After a period as an Assistant Curator at the Tate Gallery (1976–80) - during which he additionally worked on international curation projects such as the Irish biennial EVA International - Nairne was appointed Director of Exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), a position he held until 1984 - exhibitions included "Brand New York," Robert Mapplethorpe, Mary Miss, "Women's Images of Men," and "About Time."

In 1987, Nairne wrote the television documentary series "State of the Art" for Channel 4. The series and Nairne's accompanying book acts as a follow on to the Robert Hughes series The Shock of the New and provides a critical survey of contemporary visual arts from America and Europe through the 1980s.

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