The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Wyoming

Beginning in 1962 Dorothy and Herbert Vogel used their modest income as a postal clerk and librarian to amass a vast and uniquely perceptive collection encompassing over 4,000 works of contemporary art. The Vogels befriended many young artists, several at the beginning of their careers, and often purchased works on paper in order to store them more easily in their small apartment. The strengths of the collection include minimal and conceptual art, especially drawings, but also moves beyond those categories to highlight post-1960s developments in art.

In 2008, with the help of the National Gallery of Art, the Vogels launched the national gifts program Fifty Works for Fifty States, which distributed 2,500 works from the Vogel’s collection throughout the nation, with 50 works going to a selected institution in each of the 50 states. The University of Wyoming Art Museum was selected as the Wyoming designee and this exhibition celebrates this extraordinary gift to Wyoming. This is the first time this collection has been shown in its entirety at the Art Museum in which only a selection was exhibited in 2011.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website