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‘Herb and Dorothy’: You Can’t Spell Heart Without Art

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Herb and Dorothy Vogel at the National Gallery. They amassed a valuable collection of contemporary art over the years on a modest income. (Fine Line Media)

‘Herb and Dorothy’: You Can’t Spell Heart Without Art by Rachel Beckman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 19, 2008; Page C05

Herbert and Dorothy Vogel like the most unlikable art. They own a few inches of frayed rope with a nail through it. A curved lead pipe. A black cardboard square with the definition of the word “nothing” printed on it in white.

The works, by Richard Tuttle, Carl Andre and Joseph Kosuth, respectively, are part of the more than 4,000 works that Dorothy, a 73-year-old retired librarian, and her husband Herb, an 85-year-old retired postal clerk, have collected. They started buying minimal and conceptual art in New York in the early 1960s, living on Dorothy’s salary and spending Herb’s on art.

A documentary about their love affair with art, “Herb and Dorothy,” screens tomorrow and Saturday at the Silverdocs film festival.

To read the entire article in today’s Washington Post, click here.

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