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Viktor Wynd | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Robert Wyndam Bucknell |
| Born | November 5, 1976 London, U.K. |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1995–present |
Viktor Wynd is a British artist, author, and curator, known for his collections of curiosities.
Wynd established The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History in London's East End, a cabinet of curiosities featuring two-headed lambs, Fiji mermaids, unicorns, taxidermy, dodo bones, erotica, old master etchings, surrealist, occult and outsider art, [1] and celebrity faeces. [2] The museum was featured in a BBC Four documentary on cabinets of curiosity. [3] [ non-primary source needed ]
He previously ran a curiosity shop, Viktor Wynd's Little Shop of Horrors, dealing in taxidermy, shrunken heads and other oddities, [4] including the erect mummified penis of a hanged man. [5] In 2010 it was reported that Jonathan Ross's wife Jane Goldman had bought the skeleton of a two-headed baby from the shop. [6]
He has curated around 50 exhibitions at his gallery, Viktor Wynd Fine Art, including exhibitions on Mervyn Peake, [7] Tessa Farmer, [8] Leonora Carrington, [9] and Stephen Tennant. [10]
In 2005, Wynd had an exhibition entitled "Structures of The Sublime: Towards a Greater Understanding of Chaos" at Ingalls & Associates in Miami, featuring drawings and video. [11] [ non-primary source needed ]
In 2007 he had another exhibition in Miami entitled "The Sorrows of Young Wynd" (in reference to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) based around a waxwork figure of himself hanging by a noose from the middle of the gallery, and many other images of him committing suicide. [12] [ non-primary source needed ]
He founded The Last Tuesday Society with David Piper in 2003,[ citation needed ] which became known in London for its halloween parties and masked balls, [13] often with literary themes. [14] He also organised Wyndstock, a festival held at Houghton Hall in Norfolk, [15] and runs a long-running literary salon in London. [16]
Wynd is the author of four books. His first, Structures of The Sublime: Towards a Greater Understanding of Chaos, a fragmentary modernist anti-novel, was published in Miami in 2005. He went on to publish Viktor Wynd's Cabinet of Wonders with Prestel/Random House in 2014. [17] His third book, The Unnatural History Museum, was released by Prestel/Penguin Random House in 2020, [18] followed most recently by Dark Fairy Tales: Stories from Around the World (That Are Definitely Not Suitable for Children) in 2025. [19]
Wynd wrote an essay about his friend Sebastian Horsley for Yale University Press's book Artist/Rebel/Dandy: Men of Fashion, compiled by Kate Irvin and Laurie Anne Brewer.[ citation needed ]
He has made several TV appearances, including the National Geographic documentary series Taboo .[ citation needed ] He has also lectured about cabinets of curiosities, his book and his museum at The Lost Lectures, [20] the British Library, [21] Manchester University, [22] 5x15, [23] and the Barbican. [24]
He is a committee member of the London Institute of 'Pataphysics. [25]
