Herb & Dorothy (2009)

Touches You

One of my all time favorites.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This documentary reviews the eclectic life of an art collector couple in New York City. They're a wonderful couple who devote their spare time to collecting art. And as one of the trailers mentioned "you don't have to be Rockefeller to buy art". This couple is now retired and had normal jobs – she was a librarian and he worked for the post office – but no children. They loaded up their rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan with the art they loved. I can't say that I was enamoured by the art they accumulated – but everyone has their own tastes! They didn't do this for the money either; they donated their collection to the National Art Gallery in Washington which is free to the public. This is a truly life affirming film about real people with a passion for the art world.

Minimalism in art is clearly a matter of personal taste - one either loves it or loathes it, "gets" it or doesn't - but what cannot be debated is the influence Herbert and Dorothy Vogel have had on its cultivation over the past half century. Not as artists themselves, mind you - their own dabbling in it proved to be both unproductive and short-lived - but as the most famous patrons and backers of those who create the actual works.Though not wealthy themselves, Herb, a drab, colorless postal worker by day and an obsessive art maven by night, and his equally passionate wife Dorothy, have managed, over the course of five decades, to amass the world's greatest collection of minimalist and conceptual art - close to five thousand pieces in all. Almost from the day they first met in 1960, the two have been scouring the Manhattan art scene, constantly on the lookout for works to purchase and artists to champion.And speaking of minimalism, director Megumi Sasaki provides relatively few biographical details about the couple, preferring instead to concentrate on their work as collectors and the impact their intense passion and love for art have had on the scene. Sasaki relies primarily on interviews - with both the Vogels themselves and the artists whose lives and works they've influenced - to paint his portrait of the couple.As a film, "Herb and Dorothy" doesn't always make for the most riveting of viewing, seeing as much of the artwork they're fawning over is - let's be perfectly honest about it - more than a trifle preposterous. Indeed, you might even have trouble suppressing an irreverent giggle from time to time as you examine some of the pieces. But, as subjects for the camera, the Vogels convey such a down-home warm, generous and wise aura and presence that it's hard to be all that cynical about it.

To use the old Latin phrase (translation:art for art's sake). This is an open book look at two of the modern/postmodern art world's patron saints, Herb & Dorthy Vogel,who boasts of having the largest collection of modern art (all confined in a one bedroom apartment in New York City,yet). We get to know a bit about Herb & Dorthy (Herb is a retired postal worker,while Dorthy is a retired librarian),a couple who were wed in 1960,and spent most,if not all of their spare time in small galleries,perusing works by up & coming artists & purchasing works that they knew would fit in their modest trappings (an amusing scene shows Herb & Dorthy mulling over a Sol LeWitt piece that was just a bit too tall for their apartment,resulting in their exchanging it for something a bit more compact by LeWitt). Over a period of thirty years (or so),they would amass thousands of paintings,sculptures & conceptual pieces,representing the cream of the art world (or so they figured). First time producer/director,Megumi Sasaki crafts a portrait of two people,in love with each other & art (they're rarely apart from one another for too long---a scene at an artists opening depicts a somewhat jealous Dorthy getting her dander up when she finds Herb talking to a woman across the room from her). The documentary is studded with interviews with what has to be a "who's who" of modern art (Robert Barry,Pat Stier,Richard Tuttle,Christo & Jeanne-Claude,Sol LeWitt,etc.),as well as vintage film footage of the New York art scene in the 1950's,thru the 1970's & beyond. A "must see" for patrons of the arts. Not rated,but contains nothing to offend.

If you were to see Herb and Dorothy Vogel walking down the streets of Manhattan today, you would probably think they were just an ordinary old Jewish couple on their way to the Carnegie Deli for some lean brisket. You would probably be right.But if you had seen them walking down the streets of lower Manhattan in So-Ho or Tribeca sometime in the early 1970's (very unhip areas back then) you would have been very puzzled. Why would this tiny couple (they are both short) be walking around these rough neighborhoods full of punk clubs, drug addicts, scary leather bars, empty lofts and all kinds of disreputable people and why aren't they scared?The reason is because they were probably on their way to see some emerging artist in his workspace or to attend some offbeat gallery show of minimalist art. Later you might have seen them heading back uptown on the subway or in a taxi with packages of art. You would have thought, well, this is just strange enough to be typical in New York.Here, you would be wrong.Herb and Dorothy Vogel are anything but typical. He was a worker for the US Post Office, with only a couple of years of high school for education, but he was a voracious reader of art books and an overall intelligent autodidact. She was a highly educated woman with a graduate degree who made a fine career working for the New York Public Library.But, living frugally on her salary, the Vogels were able to use his salary to buy art. What kind of art? Well, mostly minimalist art from some known, but mostly from unknown artists. What were their criteria for purchase? There was only one, they simply had to like it. That's it.So, by going to every art show, gallery opening or loft display they were ever invited to and paying for their purchases in cash whenever possible (I know the usually cash strapped artists appreciated that), over the years Herb and Dorothy Vogel amassed a collection of art unprecedented in its breadth and scope. Keeping it all in their tiny rent controlled apartment between their cats, turtles and large fish tanks, they managed to get works from everyone from Sol Lewitt to Andy Goldsworthy. They got photo proofs from Chuck Close and small drawings by Richard Tuttle. They got some drawing designs of the Christo and Jean Claude project Valley Curtain for the price of simply watching the artist's cat while they were away working on a project. Herb and Dorothy seemed to know everyone in the New York art world and everyone knew them.The film Herb And Dorothy is a documentary from writer-director Megumi Sasaki that I just saw tonight at the Philadelphia Film Festival/Cinefest 2009 and it was a joy. Herb and Dorothy Vogel, along with the director were in attendance at the screening and that made this an even more special night.It was great hearing Herb and Dorothy talk about the art that they like to collect because it is very difficult art for most other people. Face it, most people only like representational art. They want their mountains to look like mountains and their dogs playing poker to look like dogs playing poker. But the Vogels seemed to be naturally drawn to works that simply had line, or color, or texture, or shape or they just liked the concept of the work the artist was trying to articulate. What makes this film so wonderful and I ultimately hope broadening for others is their simple explanations for why they liked certain things over others and their advice to follow your instincts in what you like when looking at art.There is an unsavory reverse snobbery that goes on when it comes to the general public and their appreciation of abstract, minimal or conceptual art. Since the works are frequently not immediately recognizable as definite objects, many in the general public thinks that the whole world of modern art is just one big scam. Many a time I have watched someone walk into a Modern and Contemporary gallery at a quality museum, take a look at a work by Sol Lewitt or Barnett Newman and then say loudly (so everyone else can hear), "What's this? It's just big colored lines on a wall? My kid could have painted this!" Well, first of all, that's not true and secondly, the loathsome spawn from your ignorant loins didn't paint it.This is just a form of acting superior to the work and the artist (and by extension all those who like this kind of art) by pretending to be sophisticated enough to not be taken in by simple pictures made from colored lines or abstract shapes. I want to grab these people and smack them until they open their minds a little bit.But the Vogels put that kind of snobbery to shame by simply being open, friendly and honest about what they like, what they don't like and why. Furthermore, they state their thoughts in friendly, easily understandable terms that do not require a degree in art to comprehend. I wish I could be more like them.Maybe the film Herb and Dorothy will be a corrective to this deficiency. I certainly hope so. Herb Vogel says it best when he states that he just likes these works because they are beautiful to him and beauty alone is enjoyable. A work of art doesn't need to be anything more than that.According to the film, they have donated their collection to The National Gallery in Washington so every American can now see these great works of art, which also makes the Vogels the very definition of a Mensch.