A few summers ago, in secret, an oversized moving van worth of art came out of a small one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. Then came another huge-van-full, and another, until five of these mega-vans were traveling stealthily from New York to Washington, D.C. This seemed impossible given the size of the apartment, and it has not grown any more believable since it happened, although it is entirely true. This is one of the great legends of American art, like something out of a children's story: the infinitely giving apartment of Herb and Dorothy Vogel.
The Vogels you may've heard of already: she worked as a librarian and he as a postal worker, and they lived on her salary and collected art with his. They had only two rules: the art had to be affordable, and it had to fit in their apartment.
What they ended up with was an apartment full of turtles (not, say, one or two, but more like seven or eight), fish, cats, and art stacked so high that the bed kept rising. They agreed a few years ago to give these more than 5,000 works of mostly conceptual and minimal artâ"they liked the most unlikable stuff," says Chuck Close, whose work is in their collectionâto the National Gallery of Art, which rewarded them with an annuity to help with costs such as medical care. (The two are elderly now; they resemble hobbits.) They took that annuity and bought more art to give back to the National Gallery.
Eventually the NGA decided it could only take 1,000 of their works, and the museum and the Vogels developed another plan for the rest: this year it is being distributed to museums in every state. Fifty works are coming to Seattle Art Museum (my earlier posts here and here).
Megumi Sasaki's documentary about their lives, playing at Northwest Film Forum for only a three-day engagement this weekend (schedule here), is a gem: we see them heckling artists like Richard Tuttle about the "rejects" he's made, which they would like to acquire; we see their perplexed relatives in matching blue recliners wondering why the hell these people can't just "live like us"; we see plaid blankets drawn back on artworks in their apartment that they've been protecting from the light for decades (by Sol LeWitt, Richard Artschwager, Andy Goldsworthy); we see their Carl Andre sculpture set in a chocolate box. Artists from John Baldessari to Lynda Benglis refer to them as loving friends. Christo and Jeanne-Claude tell about the time the Vogels wanted to buy a drawing but couldn't afford it, so the Vogels earned it by taking care of the artists' cat Gladys for a summer. A great love needs a great project; the Vogels didn't have children.
This is a no-bullshit zone, a haven for the cynics that today's art world abundantly produces. Art has never seemed so close, so familiar, so simple, and so pure as when you look at it with the Vogels.
I finally did get a full checklist of which of their works are coming to SAM; SAM curator Michael Darling is giving the introductory talk to the 7 pm July 31 screening of the film at NWFF and maybe he'll describe some of these or take questions. I've put the full list on the jump; to browse more selections from the collection and see where they're going, visit the Vogel 50x50 web site here.
Pictured: Daryl Trivieri's Portrait of Herb and Dorothy (1988), acrylic on canvas, 22 1/4 by 22 3/8 inches, going to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Stephen Antonakos
drawing
Untitled, 1986
Stephen Antonakos
drawing
Untitled, 1987
Stephen Antonakos
drawing
Untitled, 1988
Will Barnet
drawing
Study for the Collectors "both", 1977
Robert Barry
drawing
Untitled, 1965
Robert Barry
drawing
Untitled, 1965
Lynda Benglis
mixed media
Lagniappe, 1978
Peggy Cyphers
mixed media
Natural Love, 1986
Richard Francisco
mixed media
Ellyphant at Home Ghost Painting, 1981
Michael Goldberg
drawing
Codex Morales Braccio Sermugnano, 1981
Don Hazlitt
drawing
Untitled (Happy Birthday Dorothy), 1985
Alain Kirili
sculpture
Run, 1985
Alain Kirili
collage
Untitled, 1995
Alain Kirili
drawing
Untitled, 2000
Cheryl Laemmie
painting
Wooden Bird for Dorothy, 1990
Ronnie Landfield
painting
Shenandoah, 1985/99
Sol LeWitt
mixed media
Untitled, 1990
Michael Lucero
sculpture
Portrait Vessel, 1989
Robert Mangold
drawing
Brown-Black Zone Study, 1998
Robert Mangold
drawing
Untitled, 1999
Richard Nonas
sculpture
Untitled (2 pieces), ND
Lucio Pozzi
drawing
New Traces III - #5, 1978
Lucio Pozzi
drawing
New Traces III - #1, 1978
Lucio Pozzi
drawing
New Traces - #9, 1978
Lucio Pozzi
drawing
New Traces - #7, ND
Lucio Pozzi
drawing
New Traces III - #3, 1978
Lucio Pozzi
drawing
New Traces III - #4, 1978
Edda Renouf
watercolor
Miniature Watercolor #2, 1982
Edda Renouf
watercolor
Miniature Watercolor #4, 1982
Edda Renouf
drawing
Spring Echoes â 2, 2004
Edda Renouf
drawing
Soltice Echo, ND
Judy Rifka
painting
Cardboard Painting, 1974
Tony Smith
sculpture
Untitled, 1971
Daryl Trivieri
drawing
Model of a Child A-G, 1989
Daryl Trivieri
drawing
Image Two Goldfish, 1989
Daryl Trivieri
drawing
Images of a Young Girl, 1989
Daryl Trivieri
drawing
Sea Turtle, 1989
Daryl Trivieri
drawing
"Sea Horses," A. x B = 1 -7B + 2 x A-D, 1989
Daryl Trivieri
drawing
Sea Horses," No. 1. - 2. x A - C + 1 â 4, 1989
Richard Tuttle
watercolor
Post - Group I, #1 - #3, 1982
Richard Tuttle
watercolor
Post - Group II, #1-#6, 1982
Richard Tuttle
watercolor
Post Group III, #1-#6, 1982
Richard Tuttle
drawing
Floating Grid #3 for Herb and Dorothy, 1992
Richard Tuttle
drawing
Loose Leaf Notebook Drawings - Box 6, Group 12, 1980 - 82
Richard Tuttle
drawing
Loose Leaf Notebook Drawings - Box 6, Group 13, 1980 - 82
Richard Tuttle
drawing
Loose Leaf Notebook Drawings - Box 6, Group 14, 1980 - 82
Richard Tuttle
drawing
Loose Leaf Notebook Drawings - Box 6, Group 15, 1980 - 82
Terry Winters
drawing
Hand Line Reflection Method 5/100, 1995
Terry Winters
drawing
Hand Line Reflection Method 15/100, 1995
Terry Winters
drawing
Hand Line Reflection Method 43/100, 1995
