In the annals of modern art collecting, there is hardly a more inspiring story than that of Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, two passionate art collectors who, over decades, amassed over 4,000 artworks of enormous value, the bulk of they donated to the National Gallery in Washington DC. What’s more amazing, their entire collection was built on a shoestring budget, primarily on the postal clerk earnings of Herbert (fondly known as “Herb”). The artworks they acquired include thousands of important 20th-century American art by such artists like Sol LeWitt, Lynda Benglis, and Donald Judd, when these artists were just starting their careers.
Driven by Passion
Dorothy and Herbert Vogel started out as aspiring artists. After they got married in New York in 1962, Herb enrolled at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, and Dorothy joined him in drawing and painting classes to share in his interests. But they soon realized they derived much more joy looking at others’ art rather than making their own, so they quit their Union Square studio and devoted themselves to collecting. Over the course of decades, while working their day jobs, they filled their 450 square feet, one-bedroom Manhattan home with art, crate boxes of art. The Vogels found so much joy in collecting, they decided to make it a radical change to their lifestyle by devoting all of Herb’s postal clerk’s salary to buying art, and living on Dorothy’s income alone. “I paid the bills,” Dorothy recalled, “ and Herby was the mad collector who bought the art.”
A Taste for the Abstract
The Vogels were drawn to abstract, minimalist, and conceptual art at a time when these works were just beginning to blossom in America. 1965 was a turning point in their collecting journey. That was when they acquired their first work by conceptual artist Sol LeWitt (1928-2007). Herb recalled, “I knew something was new. I didn’t know how good or bad it was, I just knew it hadn’t been done before.” LeWitt introduced the Vogels to his circle of artist friends, including Robert Mangold whose art they also bought. These artists would shape the Vogels’ taste for contemporary art that had not yet found a market.
Out of financial necessity, the Vogels did not buy artworks from galleries and art dealers; they bought directly from artists. And they didn’t just buy artworks; yhey cultivated close relationships with many artists who were early in their career, sought to understand their ideas and working processes, and encouraged their explorations. And despite their limited means, they offered budding artists financial support, along with friendship. As artist Edda Renouf recalled, “They took their time looking at my works with full attention [which was] very inspiring to me and the beginning of our long-lasting friendship.” Some of the artists whom the Vogels supported, like LeWitt and Richard Tuttle (b. 1941) eventually became world famous.
The couple were omnivorous collectors. The only restrictions they set on their purchases were that they had to be able to afford the artwork, carry it home via taxi or subway, and fit it within their tiny apartment. . By the 1990s, their apartment was overflowing with art. Every wall was covered in paintings and drawings, sculptures were hanging from ceilings and resting on every surface, and many other pieces were wrapped and stored in crates and boxes. “Not even a toothpick could be squeezed into the apartment,” Dorothy recalled.
After three decades of collecting, the Vogels decided in 1992 to donate the bulk of their collection to the National Gallery for the public to enjoy. They gave the rest away to museums across the country. It took five moving trucks to transport the vast trove they had lovingly assembled over the years. It was an artistic legacy matched by few others in the history of art philanthropy. “Their legacy is not defined solely by the art they owned, but by the spirit in which they gave,” says Eric Motley, the National Gallery’s deputy director. “Quitely, selflessly, and with faith in the power of art to elevate the human spirit.”
Herbert passed away in 2021, and Dorothy in November this year.
Highlights from the Vogel Collection
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Dorothy and Herbet Vogel tells their extraordinary story of building a world-class art collection on a shoestring budget.