State by State
A new exhibition at the University of Wyoming presents a slice of a vast contemporary art collection decades in the making.
For the first time, The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Wyoming will be exhibited in its entirety at the University of Wyoming from February 9, 2019, through March 21, 2020. The exhibition, which was gifted from Dorothy and Herbert Vogel’s expansive personal collection, is part of the couple’s Fifty Works for Fifty States program. As part of the program, the Vogels have distributed 2,500 works across the United States, with 50 works of art going to a selected institution in each state.
Since 1962, the Vogels have amassed a vast collection of more than 4,000 works of contemporary art. What’s so profound about the Vogels’ collection, however, is not only its size or the artwork itself, but Dorothy and Herbert’s personal journeys as unlikely art collectors. Art collecting is often thought of as a hobby reserved exclusively for the affluent, yet when the Vogels began their personal collection Herbert was working as a postman and Dorothy was a reference librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library. For most of their working lives the Vogels retained these same positions, simultaneously growing a spectacular and unique art collection by befriending many young artists, often purchasing artwork on paper so they could store it more easily in their small apartment. As a result, the collection is robust in minimal and conceptual art while also moving beyond those movements to highlight post-1960s developments in art.
“The Vogels are wonderful examples of the impact art lovers can make in building a collection, even on a limited budget,” says Marianne Eileen Wardle, director of University of Wyoming’s Art Museum. “Maybe visitors can take inspiration from the Vogels and start collecting for themselves.”
The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works
For Wyoming at the University of Wyoming Art Museum and the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States is a joint initiative of the Trustees of the Dorothy Herbert Vogel and the National Gallery of Art, with generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts and Institute of Museum and Library Services.
For more information visit www.uwyo.edu.