Transitions: From Artists to Collectors

Before his marriage, Herb frequented the early havens of the abstract expressionist artists, including Greenwich Village’s Cedar Tavern and the Artist’s Club; he also journeyed to the artists’ community in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He spoke with special warmth about his association with Franz Kline and David Smith. By the close of the 1950s, Herb was painting nights and weekends; in 1960 he met Dorothy, a librarian for the Brooklyn Public Library system with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in library science from Syracuse University and the University of Denver respectively (she retired in 1990).

Dorothy and Herb realized that they were finding more immediate pleasure and long-term gratification in the hours they spent looking at other artists’ works than in those they devoted to creating their own

Dorothy’s association with Herb introduced her to the practice of painting as well as the study of art history. Shortly after their marriage, the couple rented a studio space at 41 Union Square, and Dorothy, like Herb, took weekly painting and drawing classes at NYU. After work and on weekends they developed their budding talents as abstract painters. In addition to the time in their studio, they devoted part of each weekend to prowling New York art galleries, then a far smaller world than now.

After about three years of dividing their weekends between studio work and gallery visits, Dorothy and Herb realized that they were finding more immediate pleasure and long-term gratification in the hours they spent looking at other artists’ works than in those they devoted to creating their own. In 1965 the Vogels gave up the Union Square studio and focused on collecting.