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Herb and Dorothy

June 20, 2009

Provincetown has a film festival every year in mid-June, which was begun as a way to get people to the outer edge of the Cape at other than high season and has grown into something quite unique. In addition to the fare that can be found at other festivals, there is always a good selection of gender-bending films, some contribution from John Waters, as well as some art-related movies, tributes to the special character of this part of the world.

Herb, Dorothy, etc. after the movie in the Payomet tent

Last night we saw “Herb and Dorothy”, a documentary about the lives in art of Herb and Dorothy Vogel. The Vogels, who look to be in their 80’s and who attended the show and did Q and A afterward, spent their lives collecting art on the salaries of a librarian and a postal clerk. Childless and living in a tiny rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan, they haunted the studios of emerging NY artists and bought compulsively and presciently from those they loved, could still afford, and could fit into the apartment.

The Vogels in their apartment

The film contains interviews with some of the most prominent artists they collected, including Chuck Close, Pat Stier, Sol Lewitt, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Robert Mangold, Richard Tuttle, Will Barnet, Lynda Benglis all of whom attest to the Vogel’s eye, their incredible energy – they saw everything everywhere – their persistence and their sheer love for the work. For most of these artists, the Vogels were among the first who appreciated and bought their work, even at miniscule prices by today’s standards, and they continued to give them special deals to allow them to buy after the work was otherwise well beyond their budget. They never sold a piece after acquiring it.

The Vogels' name has been inscribed at the top of the benefactor's column in the National Gallery

In 1991, the Vogels agreed to have the National Gallery inventory their collection with a view towards donating all of it. The art movers packaged every painting, drawing and sculpture crammed into the apartment, under the furniture and piled to the ceilings and filled five jumbo moving trucks with the booty, which added up to over 4700 separate pieces of art. The Vogels would accept only what is described as a “modest annuity” to provide them some measure of security as they aged. As the film shows, however, they’ve used it to buy more art, once again filling the apartment.

with part of their collection in Washington

The National Gallery determined that it would be able to assimilate only 1000 pieces, so the Vogels and the Gallery have designed a program called “50 Pieces for 50 States”, designating one museum in each of the states that will receive 50 pieces from the collection. The museums have been selected and the collection divided and the program will be officially kicked off very soon.

As you can imagine, the Vogels, who have received lots of media and art world attention over the years, are aften asked why they picked a particular piece or artist. They never say much more than that they love it, or that it speaks to them - this about a collection that includes a lot of minimal and conceptual work that is generally considered "difficult - and they utterly refuse to issue the usual art world verbalisms with which they are no doubt familiar. I found this their most endearing quality.

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