Kim W. Woods graduated from the University of York in 1979 with a BA Hons in history and a strong desire to move from history into art history. In October 1980 she began a two year MPhil course in 15th century art at the Courtauld Institute, University of London, and her doctoral thesis, entitled ’Netherlandish Carved Wooden Altarpieces of the 15th and early 16th centuries in Britain’, was submitted eight years later in 1988. During the intervening years she also worked as a free-lance lecturer. From 1990 she combined parenthood with working as an Open University tutor and as a consultant for A216 Art and its Histories (1995-7). She joined the art history department at Walton Hall on a part-time basis in April 1999, and is now full time member of the department.
Her main research interest is in Netherlandish sculpture c.1400-c.1600, resulting in several journal articles on the subject. She has written the first study of Netherlandish sculpture in England, entitled Imported Images, which was published in December 2007 (publisher Shaun Tyas, Paul Watkins Publishing). She is now working on a study of alabaster sculpture in the Netherlands in the early 15th century, and the work of the anonymous alabaster carver known as the Master of Rimini. She particularly welcomes PhD applicants wishing to pursue a northern European topic c.1350-c.1550, including sculpture.
Teaching contributions for the Open University include the well-received AA315 Renaissance Art Reconsidered, as book editor of Making Renaissance Art and co-editor and author for other volumes.
Gave a paper for the Research Forum of the Courtauld Institute of Art, 2008.
Presented a paper at the conference accompanying the 2004-5 V & A/Henry Moore exhibition Depth of Field (March 2005).
Contributed to the catalogue of the exhibition: Gothic Glory, Art in England c.1400-1547 held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in October 2003, and gave a paper at the three day conference accompanying the exhibition (Autumn 2003; see publications).
Gave a paper at a symposium on Netherlandish carved altarpieces held in October 2002 at the Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, and was a member of the experts committee organizing the event. (See publications)
Presented a paper at colloqium on Brabantine altarpieces held at the Louvre 18-19 May 2001. (see publications)
Imported images, (Donington 2007)
K.W.Woods, C.M.Richardson and A.Lymberopoulou eds, Viewing Renaissance Art, (Yale University Press in association with The Open University, 2007)
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Carol M. Richardson, Kim W. Woods and Michael W. Franklin, eds, Renaissance Art Reconsidered, an anthology of sources, (Blackwell Publishing in association with The Open University, 2007)
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K.W.Woods (ed.), Making Renaissance Art, (Yale University Press in association with The Open University, 2006)
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E. Barker, N. Webb and K. Woods, The Changing Status of the Artist, (Yale University Press in association with The Open University, 1999)
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‘The Mercers’ Christ reexamined’, in R. Marks (ed.), Late Gothic England: Art and Display, (Paul Watkins Publishing, 2007), 57-69
‘Holbein and the reform of images’, in K.W.Woods, C.M.Richardson and A.Lymberopoulou eds, Viewing Renaissance Art, (Yale University Press in association with The Open University, 2007), 249-286
‘Netherlandish networks’, in C.M.Richardson ed., Locating Renaissance Art, (Yale University Press in association with The Open University, 2006), 65-99
‘The illusion of life in fifteenth-century sculpture’, in K.W.Woods (ed.), Making Renaissance Art, (Yale University Press in association with The Open University, 2006), 103-137
‘A Passion altarpiece restored’, Apollo, June 2006, 40-45
‘Centres of Excellence’, in C. Van de Velde, H.Beeckman, J.Van Acker and F.Verhaeghe, (eds), Constructing Wooden Images, (Brussels University Press, 2005), 51-74
‘Thèmes iconographiques et sources’, in B.D’Hainaut-Zveny, Miroirs du sacré: les retables sculptés à Bruxelles XVe – XVIe siècles, production, formes et usages, (CFC-Éditions, Brussels, 2005), 77-93
‘The pre-Reformation altarpiece of Long Melford Church,’ Antiquaries Journal, 82, 2002, 93-104
‘Questions d’attribution stylistique: retables inédits en Angleterre,’ in S. Guillot de Suduiraut (ed.), Retables brabançons des XVe et XVIe siècles, colloquium Louvre May 2001, (Musée du Louvre, 2002), 345-376
‘Newly discovered works in England by the Master of Hakendover’, Oud Holland 113:3, 1999, 93-106
‘Some sixteenth century Antwerp carved wooden altar-pieces in England’, The Burlington Magazine, CXL1, 1999, 144-55
‘The status of the artist in northern Europe in the sixteenth century’, in E. Barker, N. Webb and K. Woods (eds), The Changing Status of the Artist, (Yale University Press in association with The Open University, 1999 109-128
‘Commercial sculpture’ in E. Barker, N. Webb and K. Woods (eds), The Changing Status of the Artist, (Yale University Press in association with The Open University, 1999), 129-145
‘Pieter Bruegel the Elder and the northern canon’, in E. Barker, N. Webb and K. Woods (eds), The Changing Status of the Artist, (Yale University Press in association with The Open University, 1999), 169-185
‘Benvenuto Cellini and the salt-cellar’ (with Colin Cunningham ) in E. Barker, N. Webb and K. Woods (eds), The Changing Status of the Artist, (Yale University Press in association with The Open University, 1999), 88-101
K.Woods and P. Elmer: The OU Guide to the Renaissance, produced to accompany the television series Renaissance Secrets broadcast November-December 1999
‘Five Netherlandish carved altar-pieces in England and the Brussels School of Carving c. 1470-1520’, The Burlington Magazine, CXXXVIII, December 1996, 788-800
14 articles on Netherlandish sculptors and painters in the Macmillan Dictionary of Art London, 1996
‘The Netherlandish carved altarpiece c. 1500: type and function’ in P. Humfrey and M. Kemp, (eds), The Altarpiece in the Renaissance, (Cambridge University Press, 1990), 76-89
See also Open Research Online for further details of Kim W. Woods’s research publications.
