Herb and Dorothy – on DVD

by Kathryn Born

So they were nice enough to send a screener and it was a lovely documentary. The most interesting part was towards the end when they talk about the National Gallery taking a huge chunk of the collection. The Vogels live in a one-bedroom apartment and they estimated they could bring all the work out (to the National Gallery to be inventoried) on one moving truck. But the apartment was so packed with art, beyond what anyone knew, that it took five full-size moving trucks. They had over 4,700 piece of art in their apartment. They have no place to sit except for kitchen chairs.

I mean, these guys were dedicated. And that’s the entire theme of the film. They talk about how they collected on a modest salary, which they did, but they used Herb’s ENTIRE salary on art. Once they gifted most of the collection, the National Museum set up an annuity so they would have some financial security and finally get a couch and finally be able to use their apartment as a living space and not squeeze by stacks of artwork. But instead they’re using the money to just buy more art and fill up their apartment again. (I watch the show “Hoarders”, which I’ll talk about another time, but this is an interesting and healthier take on the collecting objects compulsion)

I won’t go on too much because the documentary doesn’t have a lot of surprises, but you get to “see” the story and get a sense you never could by reading about them. They gave art every minute of their spare time. In an interview with Christo and Jeanne-Claude, they say that they didn’t have time to go to New York gallery exhibits, but “one dinner with the Vogels and we were caught up on everything that had happened in New York in the last six months”.

As always, I would have liked to have it not have all been so positive. I’m sure they saw a lot of drama and have lots of bizarre stories to tell, but this isn’t that kind of documentary.