Museum brings part of Vogel collection to Oklahoma City

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jul 15, 2009 by Brian Brus

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art's current marketing campaign reflects something of the latest art exhibit the museum is promoting.

"The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Gifts for Fifty States," which opens July 23, is a testament to how the average person, on a postal worker's salary, can amass a significant collection of contemporary art through small-scale purchases and personal relationship networking, museum film curator Brian Hern said.

And the effort to let the public know about the Vogels' gift to the museum is very much a small budget, word-of-mouth campaign, relying on grass-roots electronic social media and local news outlets, museum spokeswoman Leslie Spears said. The museum's docents are talking about the exhibition on their Facebook pages online, and Twitter alerts are being sent to the museum's 5,000 members.

"It's kind of unique for us, and that's why we're making a whoop- de-doo about it, because it's a wonderful synergy between our programs and revenue areas," Hern said. "It combines an art exhibition ... with a wonderful documentary film related to it, and a gallery talk is scheduled as well. So we're really trying to offer a wide range of access points to what really is some pretty challenging and historically significant artwork."

New Yorkers Dorothy and Herbert Vogel began collecting art after their marriage in 1962. Dorothy's income as a librarian paid for living expenses while Herb's salary as a postal officer was reserved for art, Hern said. The couple frequented New York galleries, developed friendships with artists, and purchased small-scale works that could be stored in their modest one-bedroom apartment.

By the 1970s, their collection began to receive acclaim from artists and critics alike, leading to several public exhibitions and a relationship with the National Gallery of Art. The Vogels transferred their collection to the gallery in 1990, but ultimately decided to distribute nearly 4,000 works throughout the country. The National Gallery of Art picked one museum in each state to receive a portion of the full collection. The Oklahoma City Museum of Art won the honor for Oklahoma, Hern said.

"This is fairly unusual for us to have a specific opening for a permanent collection exhibition," he said. The museum, which schedules events many months in advance, often can't show off its additions right away. But officials wanted to have an event tied to the overall "50 Pieces for 50 States" gift distribution.

"And we're trying to communicate what it's about through the events," he said. "Because it's not an easy sell when you throw out names of contemporary artists, it's not particularly digestible unless you follow that."

The Vogel collection predominantly consists of drawings and includes minimalist and conceptual art, colorful examples inspired by abstract expressionism, and a range of figurative and representational pieces.

"The strategy we're trying to emphasize is the story of Herb and Dorothy themselves. Because it's unusual that people like them would undertake something like this, that working-class collectors could make such an impact on the art world," Hern said.

The exhibition is scheduled to run through Dec. 6. The documentary film will be shown July 23-25, with a gallery talk scheduled for July 25 following the film.