Gifts to the Nation

When drawings that had been framed for public exhibition were returned to the Vogels’ apartment after the shows closed, they took up much more space than they previously had—when sheets had been stored, unframed, in folders and boxes. The couple had no choice but to maintain part of their collection in exhibition shipping crates, which gradually displaced their furniture. Eventually their apartment was transformed from an art gallery into an art warehouse. Dorothy and Herb, advancing in years, began to think more seriously about a permanent home for their treasures.

Over the years, major institutions had expressed interest in acquiring the Vogel collection. The fit never seemed quite right to Dorothy and Herb, however, until Jack Cowart, then curator of 20th-century art at the National Gallery of Art, initiated a conversation about the Gallery’s expanding representation of contemporary art. He enthusiastically introduced the Vogels to the workings of the Gallery and to colleagues engaged with current art. Free admission to all and a policy against deaccessioning objects (other than duplicate prints) made the Gallery attractive to the Vogels.

Eventually their apartment was transformed from an art gallery into an art warehouse.

Thus, in September and October of 1990 more than 2,400 works of art were transported to Washington, generating many months of intense activity on the part of Cowart and other staff—to unpack, organize, and house the collection. The works remained in Washington, and the Vogels made several large donations to the Gallery. By the close of 2007, a total of 1,100 works had been acquired by the Gallery or were designated as promised gifts, and plans for The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States were in place.

The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States is an initiative of creative generosity that places the Vogels, celebrated and influential participants in the arena of contemporary art, among the world’s top art benefactors.