Christopher Wilk

Christopher Wilk is Keeper of Performance, Furniture, Textiles and Fashion at the V&A, its largest curatorial department. He was Chief Curator of the project to create the British Galleries 1500-1900 (which was awarded the European Museum of the Year prize) and conceived the V&A’s Dr Susan Weber Furniture Gallery, devoted to the materials and techniques of furniture making. His V&A exhibitions have included ‘Fornasetti: Designer of Dreams’, ‘Modernism: Designing a New World 1914-1939’ and ‘Plywood: a material story’. Most relevant to today, he was responsible for the installation of the Kaufmann Office at V&A East Storehouse.

Before joining the V&A he worked at the Brooklyn Museum (Decorative Arts Department) and, before that, the Museum of Modern Art (Architecture and Design Department). At Brooklyn he was project coordinator for ‘The Machine Age in America, 1918-1941’ and, at MoMA, he curated the exhibition ‘Marcel Breuer: Furniture and Interiors’.

In addition to exhibition-related books on Marcel Breuer, Modernism and Plywood, he authored Thonet: 150 Years of Furniture (the first monograph in English) and Frank Lloyd Wright: the Kaufmann Office. He also edited and contributed to Western Furniture 1350-the present day and (with Nick Humphrey) The British Galleries: a study in museology.