UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection:
Fifty Works for Fifty StatesAugust 28 – November 28, 2010
Daywood GalleryThe documentary film about the Vogels titled Herb and Dorothy will be shown on October 24, 2010, at 2 p.m. in HMA’s Grace Rardin Doherty Auditorium.
Gift of The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty
States, a joint initiative of the Trustees of the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel
Collection and the National Gallery of Art, with generous support of the
National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museum and Library
Services, 2008.10.4.
In 2008, the Huntington Museum of Art was 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. The gifts are part of a national gifts program titled The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States, which has distributed 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.
This will be the first time the 50 works donated to the Huntington Museum of Art will be exhibited. The best-known aspects of the Vogel Collection are minimal and conceptual art, but the works donated to HMA also explore numerous directions of the post-minimalist period, including works of a figurative and expressionist nature.
The Vogel Collection has become characterized as unique among collections of contemporary art, both for the character and breadth of the objects and for the individuals who created it. Herbert Vogel (b. 1922), spent most of his working life as an employee of the United States Postal Service, and Dorothy Vogel (b. 1935), was a reference librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library. Setting their collecting priorities above those of personal comfort, the couple used Dorothy’s salary to cover the expenses of daily life and devoted Herbert’s salary to the acquisition of contemporary art. They spent their free time attending art openings, and getting to know young artists whose work interested them. Usually they purchased work directly from the artists themselves, and continued to follow the careers of artists they supported. Their one bedroom apartment became legendary; so full of art it was close to becoming uninhabitable for lack of space.
A documentary film titled Herb and Dorothy was made by first time filmmaker Megumi Sasaki in 2008. The film tells the extraordinary story of these “collecting visionaries” who were able to build an art collection with very modest means, which is today worth millions of dollars. Many of the artists they supported and befriended went on to become world-renowned, including Sol Lewitt, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Richard Tuttle, Chuck Close, Robert and Sylvia Mangold, Lynda Benglis, Pat Steir, Robert Barry, Lucio Pozzi, and Lawrence Weiner.
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Recent Acquisitions:
Gifts, Bequests, and Purchases 2005-2009
August 28 – November 28, 2010
Daywood and Daine galleriesIn the past five years, more than 400 works have been donated to or purchased by the Huntington Museum of Art. The works come from private collections, art galleries, and artist studios – all come with a desire to be shared with the Museum’s visitors. This exhibition will present highlights from these recent acquisitions and include works from ancient to contemporary in a wide range of materials and styles. This group includes two small ancient Egyptian bronze figures; old master prints; works by 20th century masters of Haitian art; Asian ceramics; American and European decorative arts, paintings, works on paper; folk art; glass; video; works by visiting Gropius workshop artists; and artists of this region.
