October 09, 2009

PBS program features Vogels’ art collection

by Pete Rosenbery

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- A film that looks at the extensive contemporary art collection of Herbert and Dorothy Vogel will air next week on WSIU-TV.

The Emmy Award-winning PBS series “Independent Lens” features the story of the Vogels, who amassed more than 4,000 works of art over a 45-year period. University Museum at Southern Illinois University Carbondale is the one museum in Illinois that will receive 50 works of art from “The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States.”

The series’ one-hour season premiere airs at 9 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 13, on WSIU-TV.

The Vogels, who live in a one-bedroom apartment in New York City, presented 2,500 pieces of art to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The collection focuses on minimalist and conceptual art. Herbert Vogel worked for the U.S. Postal Service while Dorothy Vogel worked as a reference librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library.

Dona Bachman, director of SIUC’s University Museum, said the Vogel exhibition is set for Aug. 24 to Dec. 11, 2010. It will be sponsored by Carbondale Community Arts as their 12th biennial exhibit with the museum. There will be various curators discussing the collection during the fall 2010 semester, she said.

The University Museum part of the collection includes works by Stephen Antonakos, Will Barnet, Robert Barry, Loren Calaway, Charles Clough, Peggy Cyphers, William Fares, Richard Francisco, Michael Goldberg, Don Hazlitt, Jane Highstein, Bryan Hunt, Martin Johnson, Steve Keister, Mark Kostabi, Cheryl Laemmie, Ronnie Landfield, Michael Lucero, Forrest Myers, Richard Nonas, Lucio Pozzi, Edda Renouf, Edward Renouf, Alan Saret, Lori Taschler, Daryl Triveri, Richard Tuttle, and Thornton Willis.

Additional program information is available at pbs.org/independentlens/.