The Alan Woods Bequest
The Alan Woods Bequest is an outstanding collection of contemporary artworks bequeathed to the University by the late Alan Woods.
It includes artists such as Ralph Rumney, Susan Hiller, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Ian Howard, Will Maclean and many of Alan's students from Duncan of Jordanstone College.
The collection is currently being catalogued and a permanent exhibition space has been set up for it in the Baxter Conference Suite, Tower Building. A series of temporary exhibitions are also underway.
Click here for information about the Cooper Gallery exhibition, October - November 2001.
Click here to see more images from the Bequest.
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David Armitage, Confederate | Will Maclean, Trio |
Alan Woods (1956-2000)
Alan Woods was a lecturer in History and Theory in the School of Fine Art.
He graduated from Cambridge University and taught in the School
from 1989. Alan had a remarkably deep and broad knowledge of
literature, aesthetics, visual art, photography, cinema, music
and popular culture, which he generously shared with a generation of
Dundee students (and, it should be said, with his colleagues, along
with daily doses of unmatchable wit and good humour). Alan was a
subtle and penetrating writer on art and cinema, his originality
and insight expressed in a wonderfully flexible prose style that
could catch every nuance of his thought. He never lost his romantic
ideal that an art school should exist in a state of near-anarchy,
driven by free creative work in (and beyond) the visual media,
but (only seemingly a paradox), he passionately believed that
knowledge of art and critical thinking were essential if a student
were to make him- or herself into an artist. His wish was that the
art of the past, which he loved, might be made as meaningful,
inspirational and relevant to the students as the most contemporary
work (in which he was equally interested).
David Davies, Breath on the Glass, 1991
The Collection
Alan Woods was a collector of art, of books and of music.
He was a hoarder, even. Very little ever seemed to be thrown away,
as anyone who ventured into his flat in Leith could testify.
Walls, cupboards, surfaces were filled with works of art, books,
tapes and CDs, newspapers and uncountable notes of his own, in his
characteristic sloping, illegible hand. The few flat spaces were
likely to be occupied by coffee cups. Alan collected over two hundred
and sixty works, mostly drawings, prints, paintings and constructions.
Sculptures are few, and in this respect domestic limitations of space
restricted his activities. More surprisingly, perhaps, although
photography was an abiding interest (some of his best writing was
on photographic subjects and he was himself an avid photographer of
the everyday scene wherever he went), there are not many photographic
works in the collection.
In all personal collections a dispersed portrait of the collector
is preserved. Together the works offer a glimpse into the person
who brought them together, who chose them rather than any others,
and Alan's collection in this sense (for those who knew him) is
suffused with his personality, his tastes and his interests; with
his life, in short. The collection that he built up in little more
than ten years was not that of a wealthy man. Most are contemporary
works of moderate size. For all but the last two or three years of
his life (when a modest family inheritance allowed him a little more
latitude) his material means for acquiring artworks were limited,
but he had more than the power of money to rely on. Certainly, if he
liked a work enough he would buy it if it was at all possible. He also
collected, judiciously, works by students and by artists in the early
stages of their careers when they were relatively inexpensive, and
occasionally bought from auctions. But he had other ways to get around
financial limitations, ways which help to explain the nature of the
collection and the artists represented in it. His greatest assets as a
collector were his gift for friendship and his special quality as a
writer on art and cinema. He collected the works of friends and
colleagues in the School of Fine Art. These were often the fruits of
what was possibly his favourite 'deal' - to swap a catalogue essay for a
work. In this way he acquired works by Edward Summerton, Jim Pattison,
Will Maclean and others. Similarly, for a number of years he
maintained an 'account' at Peacock Printmakers in Aberdeen which was
paid in this way, enabling him to collect works by (for example)
John Bellany, who had made prints there. Thirdly, he collected
works by artists with whom friendships had been often been initiated
by the admiration of the artists for his writings on their work.
These included Ralph Rumney, Tom Phillips and R B Kitaj. Finally,
his work as editor of Transcript brought him into contact with
artists, which opened up new opportunities for adding to his
collection. His contact with Peter Greenaway, Howard Hodgkin
and Susan Hiller came through this route.
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Morag Muir, 1990 | Ralph Rumney, 1990 |
Text by Euan McArthur, School of Fine Art
Lucid by Alan Woods & Arthur Watson, 1998
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