Herb & Dorothy Vogel Built a Priceless Art Collection on a Budget

Herb & Dorothy Vogel, a couple of unassuming New Yorkers, built one of the world’s most significant collections of modern art then gave it away to the National Gallery of Art. Their shared obsession with art is by turns endearing and inspiring.

Herb Vogel never earned more than $23,000 a year. Born and raised in Harlem, Vogel worked for the post office in Manhattan. He spent nearly 50 years living in a 450-square-foot one-bedroom apartment with his wife, Dorothy, a reference librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library. They lived frugally. They didn’t travel. They ate TV dinners. Aside from a menagerie of pets, Herb and Dorothy had just one indulgence: art. But their passion for collecting turned them into unlikely celebrities, working-class heroes in a world of Manhattan elites.
– mental floss

Herb and Dorothy Vogel

So here’s the Vogels, a couple of working stiffs on a shoestring budget that managed to amass a collection that took the National Gallery weeks to transport when their collection worth tens of millions of dollars (at minimum) was simply donated after Herb died.  How did they accomplish this? Well, they understood art, they really liked art, they wanted to own art… and they cut out the middleman.

Many in the art world call the Vogels’ method cheating. That’s because the couple never dealt with galleries and art dealers. Instead, Herb and Dorothy negotiated with hungry artists directly, arriving at studios with cash in hand. Artist Jeanne-Claude, who passed away in 2009, remembered receiving a phone call from Herb back in 1971, when the creators of “The Gates” were still broke. “It’s the Vogels!” Jeanne-Claude cried to her dispirited husband and partner in art, Christo. “We’re going to pay the rent!” But the Vogels didn’t just take their cash to big-name artists; they were equally passionate about unknown talents, often helping them to develop. David Reed, now a famous conceptual artist, said the couple encouraged him to make more drawings, which later became a central part of his practice. “The Vogels made you aware of what you were doing as an artist,” he said. “They had artist sensibilities.” When they spotted something beyond their means, they’d find a way to make the purchase: They’d buy on credit; they’d forgo a vacation; they’d even throw in cat-sitting to sweeten a deal. And the artists loved them for it. As Chuck Close told Newsday, “You knew when you were selling them something it was becoming part of an important collection.”
– mental floss

Word on the street is that the Vogels got this piece from Christo in exchange for watching his cat while he was installing Valley Curtain.

These simple facts don’t express the sweetness of the story, though.  Herb and Dorothy Vogel really loved what they were doing, and their shared passion for art allowed them to build one of the most important collections of 20th century art with very little money in a tiny apartment.

They amassed a collection of over 4,782 works, which they displayed, and also stored in closets and under the bed, in their rent-controlled one-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Though their focus was mainly conceptual art and minimalist art, the collection also includes noteworthy post-minimalist work. Their collection eventually came to include work from artists such as pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, photographers Cindy Sherman and Lorna Simpson, minimalist Robert Mangold and post-minimalist Richard Tuttle.

In 1992, the Vogels decided to transfer the entire collection to the National Gallery of Art because it charges no admission, doesn’t sell donated works, and they wanted their art to belong to the public. In late 2008, they launched The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States along with the National Gallery of Art, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.The program donated 2,500 works to 50 institutions across 50 states and was accompanied by a book with the same name. In 2008, an award-winning documentary about their story, Herb and Dorothy, was released.
– wikipedia

The documentary by Megumi Sasaki looks quite touching, and is a fitting tribute to this remarkable couple. I admit I’ve only seen the trailer posted below but fully intend to watch the entire film.

“I have no regrets,” Dorothy said. “I’ve had a wonderful life. And I believe Herb and I were made to be together.”
– mental floss

Awwww. Read the full story at Mental Floss. You won’t regret it.
Some of the pieces in the Vogel 50×50 collection can be viewed here.