Fifty Works for Fifty States
FAC is selected to receive works from the Vogel Collection
The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center has been selected to receive a gift of 50 works of art from New York collectors Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, with the help of the National Gallery of Art, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The gifts are part of a national gifts program entitled The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States.
The program will distribute 2,500 works from the Vogels' collection of contemporary art throughout the nation, with 50 works going to a selected art institution in each of the 50 states. Artists whose work is being donated to Fine Arts Center include Will Barnet (b. 1911), Adam Fuss (b. 1961), Michael Lucero (b. 1953), Sylvia Plimack Mangold (b. 1938), and Richard Tuttle (b. 1941).
National Gallery of Art | Online Press Kit
Vogel 5050 web site | Information center
Herb & Dorothy | Documentary web site
Denver Film Society | Dates & Show Times
A documentary about the couple, HERB & DOROTHY, is currently being shown in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago and will be shown at Denver’s STARZ FilmCenter for a one-week engagement (July 16-23). Director Megumi Sasaki will be on hand both July 16-17.
The documentary tells the extraordinary story of Herbert Vogel, a postal clerk, and Dorothy Vogel, a librarian, who managed to build what has been called one of the most important contemporary art collections in history with very modest means. In the early 1960s, when very little attention was paid to Minimalist and Conceptual Art, Herb and Dorothy Vogel quietly began purchasing the works of unknown artists. Devoting all of Herb's salary to purchase art they liked, and living on Dorothy's paycheck alone, they continued collecting artworks guided by two rules: the piece had to be affordable, and it had to be small enough to fit in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment.
Within these limitations, they proved themselves curatorial visionaries; most of those they supported and befriended went on to become world-renowned artists including Sol LeWitt, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Richard Tuttle, Chuck Close, Robert Mangold, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Lynda Benglis, Pat Steir, Robert Barry, Lucio Pozzi, and Lawrence Weiner.
The best-known aspects of the Vogel Collection are minimal and conceptual art. Primarily a collection of drawings, the 2,500 works the Vogels are donating also include paintings, sculptures, photographs, and prints by more than 170 contemporary artists, mainly working in the United States.
“I have known and followed the Vogel Collection for some time,” said Sam Gappmayer, FAC CEO and President. “Their lifetime accomplishment in creating this collection is nothing short of phenomenal and their vision in sharing it so broadly sets the highest possible standard for arts patronage. The Fine Arts Center is honored to be the Colorado recipient of such a unique gift.”
The Vogel Collection and the National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art has worked closely with Dorothy and Herbert Vogel since 1991, when it acquired a portion of their collection, through partial purchase and gift from the Vogels. Since the couple formed their association with the National Gallery, the Vogels’ collection has continued to grow to include some 4,000 works, far more than can appropriately be placed in a single institution.
Inspired by the Kress Foundation’s placement of old master paintings throughout the United States in the middle of the last century, the Vogels hope that their project will, as a parallel effort, enhance knowledge of the art of our time.
“We hope this will be a truly national program, and that it will make the work of the many artists we admire familiar to a wider audience. We also hope our gifts will enable museums throughout the country to represent a significant range of contemporary art,” said Dorothy Vogel on behalf of the couple.
Works from the collection have appeared in numerous exhibitions throughout the world, including two major exhibitions organized by the National Gallery that were selected solely from their collection. In 1994, From Minimal to Conceptual Art: Works from the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection was on view at the National Gallery of Art. It was also seen in 1997 at the Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery in Austin, and the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. In 1998, the exhibition traveled abroad to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel, and the Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, Turku, Finland. Following its 2002 presentation in Washington, Christo and Jeanne-Claude in the Vogel Collection was on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego.
Other institutions receiving works from the Vogel Collection include the High Museum of Art (Atlanta), Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), Indianapolis Museum of Art, Weisman Art Museum (Minneapolis), Joslyn Art Museum (Omaha), Portland Art Museum, Seattle Art Museum, and the Milwaukee Art Museum.
The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States becomes a part of the Fine Arts Center Permanent Collection. The FAC Permanent Collection is sponsored by El Pomar Foundation, Colorado Springs Independent, the Wine Festival of Colorado Springs, and the Colorado Springs Debutante Ball Committee.