Most Houston art lovers know how John and Dominique de Menil had the means to build the shockingly good collection now housed in the museum that bears their name. She was an heiress to the Schlumberger fortune, and he was an executive at the oil-field services company. Money isn’t everything, but it helps.
Now Herb & Dorothy, a documentary screening at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, tells how a couple without Schlumberger money — Herb Vogel, a postal clerk, and his wife, Dorothy Vogel, a librarian — built a collection that made them art-world legends. Their collection brought them fame not only because its depth and quality but also because of the fact it was crammed into a one-bedroom New York apartment until they gave it away, only to resume collecting. They’ve bought more than 4,700 artworks since the early 1960s.
How did they do it? It helped that they lived modestly in an apartment covered under New York’s rent-control laws — an utterly foreign concept in Houston — in which landlords are limited in how much they can charge. Perhaps even more importantly, they were a working couple who made ends meet off her salary and used his to buy art.
Another crucial factor: While other collectors were buying and driving up the prices of Pop art, the Vogels bought what few others would — minimalist and conceptual works. This meant they could afford pieces by the likes of Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Richard Tuttle and Lynda Benglis while they were unknown. And the artists, appreciative of the Vogels’ support during the lean years, were often inclined to give the couple a break after their prices grew along with their reputations.
Once the Vogels, upon learning the price of a collage they wanted to buy from Christo and Jeanne-Claude — a couple known for large-scale temporary art projects such as wrapping buildings and bridges in fabric — said they had discovered the artists too late to be able to afford their work. Touched by the Vogels’ passion, the artists decided to give them the collage in exchange for taking care of their cat while they spent a summer traveling. The film is packed with similarly affectionate testimonials from artists describing their decades-long friendship with the couple, now retired.
Directed by first-time filmmaker Megumi Sasaki. Herb & Dorothy does better with hows than whys. Viewers who are nonplussed or confused by minimalism and conceptualism won’t get much help here. Curators — and the Vogels — vouch for the quality of the works they bought but rarely communicate effectively why they matter. Sometimes the film coasts too much on charm, which there’s no denying the adorable couple have in spades.
There’s also no denying their awe-inspiring generosity. Though their collection was worth millions, in 1992 they gave it to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., after having turned down numerous offers from museums that wanted to buy it. Because both had worked government jobs, they liked the idea of sharing their collection with the taxpayers who made it possible.
It took five moving trucks to transport the artworks from their apartment, which had grown so packed with art it was virtually uninhabitable.
Then, having finally gotten some room to breathe, they set out, once again, to fill the apartment with art.
By DOUGLAS BRITT ARTS WRITER
Posted By: Daniel Moss
Thursday, September 24th 2009 at 8:16PM
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