Putnam became a curator in the Egyptian Antiquities Department of the British Museum, and in 1994, he initiated and organized the ‘Time Machine’ exhibition juxtaposing the work of contemporary artists with ancient sculptures.
[1][2][3][4] Other activities in the early 1990s included a stint as a visual artist and a musician when he formed the experimental rock band GOD together with Phil Gray & Richard Dyer to tour UK extensively before disbanding.
Between 1999 and 2003, he founded and directed the British Museum's Contemporary Arts & Cultures Programme, which staged performances and talks by Tracey Emin, Vivienne Westwood, Cai Guo-Qiang, Antony Gormley, Grayson Perry, Sarah Lucas, Gavin Turk, Jake & Dinos Chapman and Michael Craig Martin.
[5] He was also a guest curator for Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, Japan (2005-6) and the Busan Biennial in South Korea (2010).
His ongoing curating projects include large-scale collateral projects for the prestigious Venice Biennales from 2007 to 2017 (52nd~57th Edition), and a series of critically acclaimed exhibitions that he collaborates with Sophie Calle, Sarah Lucas, Andy Hope 1930, Ellen Gallagher, Mat Collishaw, Noble & Webster, Miroslaw Balka and Gavin Turk in the Freud Museum, London.