Under the auspices of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the program will eventually distribute 2,500 works of mostly Minimalist and Conceptual art from the Vogels’ legendary holdings throughout the nation, with 50 works going to a selected art institution in each of the 50 states.

Among the artists represented in the MAM gift are Stephen Antonakos, MAM Honorary Trustee Will Barnet, Lynda Benglis, Ronald Bladen, Larry Poons, Judith Shea and New Jersey-born Richard Tuttle.

The Montclair Art Museum plans to hold an exhibition of the Vogel Gift Collection in the fall of 2010.

"Herb and Dorothy Vogel have been among the most adventurous contemporary art collectors since the late 1960s," stated Museum Director Patterson Sims. "Their art is often modest in scale, but huge in the breadth of their collecting enthusiasms. Despite their modest incomes, they were modern-day Medicis. They acquired minimalism and conceptual art and many, then esoteric, artists like Richard Tuttle early on and just kept at it, accumulating a collection of several thousand works with huge pockets of work by many, now key artists. Their Upper East Side apartment was filled to the point of obsession and claustrophobia, which was only abated slightly by their gift of much of their art to the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.

"Up until recent years and diminished mobility, they were ubiquitous on the gallery and museum scene and could be counted on — if often unable to be seen — amid the crowds at the Whitney Biennial, MoMA, and new museum openings and galleries all over town," Sims continued. "They were welcomed into artists’ studios in every borough. The artists realized that being in the Vogels’ collection meant they had arrived in the ever-changing art world. Herb and Dorothy stayed on top of new art for many indefatigable decades, very shrewdly, passionately, and unabashedly embracing of the new and different."

"The Vogel Collection provides an excellent, highly personal account of the pioneering collection of Minimal and Conceptual art from the 1970s and beyond," stated Gail Stavitsky, chief curator at the Montclair Art Museum. "It reflects the personal ties that the Vogels had with these artists and the subjects, as evoked by Michael Vinson Clark’s portrait of Patterson Sims. Both Patterson and I were extremely fortunate to be able to visit with the Vogels in their New York City apartment many years ago and to appreciate firsthand their passion for collecting. We are extremely grateful to the Vogels for their friendship and for remembering the Montclair Art Museum, which has, in past shows, featured works by artists in the collection, especially Will Barnet and Robert Barry."

The National Gallery has worked closely with Dorothy and Herbert Vogel since 1991, when the first of several groups of works from their holdings entered the Gallery’s permanent collection. "The generosity of Dorothy and Herb has enhanced our collection of contemporary art immeasurably," stated Earl A. Powell III, director of the National Gallery. " Of the five wonderful wall drawings by Sol Lewitt, two are currently on view in the East Building, along with two sculptures by Lynda Benglis, and two sculptures by Richard Tuttle."

In 1992, the National Gallery announced the acquisition of a portion of the Vogel Collection through partial purchase and a gift from the Vogels. Since forming the association with the National Gallery, the Vogel Collection has grown to include some 4,000 works, primarily of artists working in the United States. It is far more than can appropriately be placed in a single institution. Currently 832 accessioned works from the Vogel Collection are in the Gallery’s holdings, and another 268 are promised gifts.

Works collected by the Vogels have appeared in numerous exhibitions throughout the world, including two major exhibitions the Gallery organized and presented that were selected solely from their collection. In 1994, "From Minimal to Conceptual Art: Works from the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection" was on view at the National Gallery. It was also seen in 1997 at the Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery in Austin and the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. In 1998, the exhibition traveled abroad to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel, and the Waino Aaltonen Museum of Art in Turku, Finland. In 2002, Christo and Jeanne-Claude in the Vogel Collection was on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego.

"The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support this ambitious project. The generosity shown by the Vogels in their eagerness to share their marvelous collection with the entire nation is truly inspiring. Part of the NEA’s mission is to ensure greater access to the arts. What better way to promote that mission than through Fifty Works for Fifty States," commented Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Vogel collection has been characterized as unique among collections of contemporary art, both for the character and breadth of the objects and for the individuals who created it. Herbert Vogel, 85, spent most of his working life as an employee of the U.S. Postal Service, and Dorothy Vogel, 73, was a reference librarian in the Brooklyn Public Library. By setting their collecting priorities above those of personal comfort, the couple used Dorothy’s salary to cover the expenses of daily life and devoted Herbert’s salary to the acquisition of contemporary art. As patrons with modest means, they have collected objects small in scale, primarily drawings; but they have also acquired paintings and sculpture, as well as a smaller number of prints, photographs, and illustrated books. With the exception of the collection formed by their friend, artist Sol LeWitt, no other known private collection of similar work in Europe or America rivals the range, complexity, and quality of the art the Vogels acquired.

As the first collectors to buy work by many artists who were then unknown to a wide audience, the Vogels offered encouragement at the start of the careers of several figures who went on to achieve considerable acclaim. Owing to these artists’ continuing close relationship with the collectors, many works of art collected by the Vogels were gifts, marking special occasions — such as Dorothy’s and Herbert’s birthdays and wedding anniversary — and often personally inscribed. In this sense, the Vogels’ collection is a keen reflection of their friendships with artists.

Many drawings in the collection represent an artist’s initial form of an idea, and others act as plans to be followed by a collaborator in the making of a work of art. This emphasis on drawings adds to the unique and intimate nature of the Vogel Collection, making their gifts an important educational tool for museums. Another educational focus of the Vogels since 1980 has been their ongoing donation of artist-related records to the Archives of American Art in Washington, D.C.

"We hope this will be a truly national program, and that it will make the work of the many artists we admire familiar to a wider audience. We also hope our gifts will enable museums throughout the country to represent a significant range of contemporary art," stated Dorothy Vogel on behalf of the couple. Inspired by the Kress Foundation’s placement of old master paintings throughout the United States in the middle of the last century, the Vogels hope that their project will, as a parallel effort, enhance knowledge of the art of our time.