Archives of American Art

A Finding Aid to the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Papers, 1960s-2009, in the Archives of American Art

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.vogedoro
Creators:
Vogel, Dorothy
Vogel, Herbert
Dates:
1960s-2009
Languages:
Collection is in English
Physical Description:
47.5 Linear feet
Repository:
The papers of contemporary art collectors Dorothy and Herbert Vogel measure 47.5 linear feet and date from the 1960s to 2009. Found is scattered general correspondence, artists' files, subject files, business records, and printed material relating to the Vogel Collection. Artists' and subject files create the bulk of the collection, the majority of which is printed material but includes some correspondence from artists.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
The papers of contemporary art collectors Dorothy and Herbert Vogel measure 47.5 linear feet and date from the 1960s to 2009. Found is scattered general correspondence, artists' files, subject files, business records, and printed material relating to the Vogel Collection. Artists' and subject files create the bulk of the collection, the majority of which is printed material but includes some correspondence from artists.
Scattered general correspondence is with friends, acquaintances, and corporate entities.
Files for artists represented in the Vogel Collection include Carl Andre, Stephen Antonakos, Richard Artschwager, Alice Aycock, Will Barnet, Mel Bochner, Andre Cadere, Ann Chernow, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Peggy Cyphers, Claudia DeMonte, Richard Francisco, Dan Graham, Jan Groth, Don Hazlitt, Jene Highstein, On Kawara, Sol Lewitt, Sylvia and Robert Mangold, Lucio Pozzi, Edda Renouf, Robert Ryman, Barbara Schultz, Lori Taschler, Richard Tuttle, and Lynn Umlauf among many others. Materials within artists' files may include printed material, correspondence, writings and notes, and scattered business records.
Subject files are found for Dorothy and Herbert Vogel's friends and colleagues within the art world including art historians, writers, gallerists, dealers, and collectors. Extensive letters are from Sandy Seawright and Bernadine Tabler. Exhibition related materials are found among the files.
Scattered business records of the Vogel Collection document exhibitions of the collection at U.S. institutions and at the Kunsthalle Bielefeld Museum in Germany.
Printed materials include clippings, posters, and exhibition catalogs and announcements.

Arrangement

Arrangement
The collection is arranged as 5 series:
  • Missing Title
  • Series 1: Correspondence, 1971-1987 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1)
  • Series 2: Artists' Files, 1963-2009 (30.4 linear feet; Boxes 1-31)
  • Series 3: Subject Files, 1969-2008 (9.8 linear feet; Boxes 31-41)
  • Series 4: Vogel Collection Business Records, 1974-1988 (0.3 linear feet; Box 41)
  • Series 5: Printed Material, 1960s-2000s (6.7 linear feet; Boxes 41-47, OV48-58)

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Dorothy (1935- ) and Herbert Vogel (1922-2012) were contemporary art collectors in New York City, New York. The middle-class couple bought and collected art for forty-five years and amassed an extensive collection.
A life-long New Yorker, Herbert Vogel was born in 1922 and dropped out of school to work in a garment factory. After joining the U.S. Army, Vogel became a postal clerk and began to frequent Greenwich Village's Cedar Bar, a popular bar of the arts crowd. Vogel developed a deep appreciation for art and for the artists themselves.
In 1960, he met librarian Dorothy Faye Hoffman and they quickly fell in love. During their honeymoon, they visited the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Dorothy and Herb's first purchase was a sculpture by John Chamberlain. On their civil servant salary, the Vogels continued to collect and purchase art, beginning with young artists of the 1960s and 1970s while bypassing the dealer system of the New York City art scene. The result was a collection of 5,000 pieces which had to fit in their one-bedroom apartment.
In 1992, the Vogels donated the bulk of their collection to the National Gallery of Art, with fifty pieces intended to go to a museum or institution in each of the United States. Herbert Vogel died in 2012 in Manhattan and is survived by Dorothy.

Administration

Author
Jayna M. Josefson
Sponsor
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund
Separated Materials
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel 2435) including three notebooks containing clippings, articles, press releases, exhibition catalogs and announcements. Lent materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Processing Information
The collection was processed to a minimal level and a finding aid prepared by Jayna Josefson in 2015, with funding provided by the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund. The Archives of American Art has implemented minimal processing tactics when possible in order to increase information about and access to more of our collections.
Minimal processing included arrangement to the series, subseries, and folder levels. Generally, items within folders were simply verified with folder titles, but not arranged further. The collection was rehoused in archival containers and folders, but not all staples and clips were removed.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Dorothy and Herbert Vogel donated their papers in several accretions from 1980 to 2009 and lent three notebooks for microfilming in 1982.
Existence and Location of Copies
Material lent for microfilming is available on 35mm microfilm reel 2435 at the Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.

Using the Collection

Preferred Citation
Dorothy and Herbert Vogel papers, 1960s-2009. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Terms of Use
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Conditions Governing Access
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Art -- Collectors and collecting Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- Collectors and collecting -- New York (State) -- New York Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women art dealers Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Schultz, Barbara Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ryman, Robert, 1930- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
DeMonte, Claudia, 1947- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Cyphers, Peggy, 1954- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Tuttle, Richard, 1941- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Taschler, Lori, 1959- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Tabler, Bernadine Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Seawright, Sandy Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Kunsthalle Bielefeld Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Umlauf, Lynn Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Highstein, Jene, 1942-2013 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Hazlitt, Don, 1948- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Kawara, On Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Jean-Claude, Martha, 1919-2001 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Francisco, Richard, 1942- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Andre, Carl, 1935- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Groth, Jan, 1938- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Graham, Dan, 1942- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Aycock, Alice Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Barnet, Will, 1911-2012 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Antonakos, Stephen, 1926-2013 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Artschwager, Richard, 1923- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Chernow, Ann, 1936- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Christo, 1935- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bochner, Mel, 1940- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Cadere, André, 1934-1978 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Renouf, Edda Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Mangold, Sylvia Plimack, 1938- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Pozzi, Lucio, 1935- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
LeWitt, Sol, 1928-2007 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Mangold, Robert, 1937- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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