Alan Woods, who died suddenly at the age of 43, was an art historian for over ten years at the school of fine art at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art. To those who knew him, "art historian" will seem an inadequate term for a man whose interests were wide and deep yet, for all their richness, carried lightly. He had no interest in categories and none could contain him. He was rooted in the visual arts, above all in painting and film, about both of which he wrote with great acuity and insight, often drawing from the seemingly familiar fresh perceptions which appeared so right as to be self evident, which of course they were not. He exhibited collages and text-based works, enjoying whenever possible the opportunity to work with artists as an artist. There was no visual medium which did not interest him. His love of music, poetry (which he wrote) and literature was equally deep and wide-ranging, but so too was his knowledge of popular culture, in music, print and film. And of course he loved football.
Obituary - Alan Woods by Euan McArthur Alan graduated from Cambridge University and moved to Dundee in the late 1980s to take up his first teaching post at the school of fine art. As a teacher he was in his element one-to-one, drawing upon all the areas of his interest to offer ideas, connections and directions to open up to students "the widest possible horizons." He published in the Cambridge Quarterly, wrote many exhibition catalogues (the artists were almost always his friends) and occasional art reviews for The Herald. In recent years his publications included essays on David Hockney, RB Kitaj and Howard Hodgkin. He will be best remembered for his book on Peter Greenaway, Being Naked Playing Dead, regarded by Greenaway himself as the best critical writing on his films, and as founder-editor (and driving force) of the journal Transcript. Transcript gave him special pleasure, bringing him as it did into contact with artists in whom he was interested, in Britain, the USA and elsewhere. It is a supreme irony that he should have fallen ill on the very day that Manchester University Press agreed to become publishers of Transcript. Alan had recently completed a book on Ralph Rumney, founding member of the Situationist International and a close friend, which will be published next year, but he died with many other projects in mind: a book on Howard Hodgkin and another (showing again the range of his interests) on Bob Dylan among them.
Alan will be missed not only as a scholar cut off before his time but as a man: generous and warm, irrepressibly witty, always the best of company, with a great gift for friendship.
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