Yesterday we talked about collecting the work of emerging artists, and today we give an example of collectors who have become world famous thanks to their gradual and intuitive collecting of works by emerging artists. Herbert (by the way, his father was from Russia) and Dorothy Vogel got married in 1962, and their first purchase after their wedding was a sculpture by John Chamberlain, young at that time, who later became a famous American sculptor.
Herbert worked as a civil servant at the post office, sorting packages, and Dorothy worked as a librarian until she retired. Instead of going to restaurants, the cinema and enjoying other forms of entertainment, they would save their money and spend it only on Art. The married couple bought exclusively those works that they both liked. By the end of Herbert's life, their collection totalled more than 4,780 pieces, among the names you could find Roy Lichtenstein, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, Sol Lewitt and other now prominent artists. In 2008, they donated 50 artworks to each State of America (a total of 2,500 works). Critics call their collection the most important collection of American Conceptual and Minimalist Art. The works from their collection that are presented here are by Charles Clough, Zigi Ben-Haim, Lynda Benglis, Robert Barry, and Stephen Antonakos.
