Art Collecting the Vogel Way

Dear Art Lover,

I really enjoyed this article about how a man meets a woman and teaches her his new passion.  Together they create something magical.  I posted this in my recent art newsletter (a different subscription:  http://www.borsheimarts.com/contact.htm ), but you may read it here as well.

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Art Collecting: The Vogels

     As an art collector myself, I found this interesting article online written by Jed Lipinski. It is titled, “How a Working-Class Couple Amassed a Priceless Art Collection” and it is the story of art collectors Herb and Dorothy Vogel in New York City. The full article may be found here:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/48844/how-working-class-couple-amassed-priceless-art-collection

     Mr. Lipinski has written and engaging article that describes two love affairs really. He tells how Dorothy and Herb met and how he shared his secret passion with her. Their collection really became their life-long creation. Here are some of my favorite excerpts from the article [all direct quotes].

    

     They had only a few criteria: The work had to be affordable; it had to fit in their apartment; and it had be transportable via taxi or subway. Not part of the equation? The artist’s reputation. “We bought what we liked,” Dorothy said. “Simple as that.”

     When they spotted something beyond their means, they’d find a way to make the purchase: They’d buy on credit; they’d forgo a vacation; they’d even throw in cat-sitting to sweeten a deal. And the artists loved them for it.

  

     [Artist Lucio] Pozzi offered an alternate explanation. “To ask them to sell a piece of their collection would be like asking me to cut off a square yard of one of my paintings,” he said. “They were artists, and the collection was their work of art.”

After Herb died in 2012, the article quotes:

     “I have no regrets,” Dorothy said. “I’ve had a wonderful life. And I believe Herb and I were made to be together.”

You may read the full newsletter here and it contains the details of my current art sale (which ends 15 February 2016).

http://www.borsheimarts.com/news/20160111_ArtNews-NitramCharcoalDrawing.htm

Thank you.  Peace,

Kelly Borsheim, artist

http://BorsheimArts.com

Solstice and Art Collecting

Ok, so these two do not necessarily have much in common. But yesterday was the first day of spring and tonight is the full moon. Bellisima! I went out dancing with many friends and had a blast! And after passing my camera around, I now have hundreds of images to prove it.

Allora, trying to catch up on e-mail is often a problem for me, but I came across notice of this blog about art collecting. It is pretty cool and I wish more people were sharing their passions in this way. Enjoy (and click on the title for the full interview):

03/20/2008: "THE FINE ART OF ART COLLECTING: AN INTERVIEW WITH EDWARD GOLDMAN" by Laurie Lamson

Some Exerpts:
Edward Goldman: “Yes, to wrap yourself in a blanket and just to watch TV. We cannot do anything without challenging ourselves. And when I say challenging, for [a] good collector, it’s to acquire, to buy only what [the] person loves. But it doesn’t mean [the] person should see only what [the] person likes and prefers to see. You have to see everything.

It’s like, you want to marry, you probably want to know, on a personal level, as friends and acquaintances, hundreds of people before you make a choice. You meet good people, you meet not very good people, you meet wonderful people, you meet nasty people. So you learn something about people. You learn about whom you want to spend the rest of your life with.

The same about art. You have to understand not only what you like, [but] what’s there around for you. You might be surprised. I believe that if someone likes to drink tea and coffee, and never drank vodka – we are talking about good Russian vodka from the freezer – you might be shocked. It’s [an] acquired taste. The same probably for the whiskey. The same for the very spicy food. You’re acquiring [a] taste. So you want to look at a lot of art under different circumstances and slowly decide, what kind of new friends you want to make among the art and artists.”

“For me, and I think for all of us, art shouldn’t be a luxury. Art is expression of our human collective experience, of our collective soul.”

“I think about art collecting, if you do it smartly, not to invest money, I’m not interested about that, and I’m not able even to advise people on that. I’m interested in investing yourself, your soul in collecting art, the way you invest yourself in building friendship, which lasts, you hope, for the lifetime.”

Resources:

http://blog.absolutearts.com/blogs/archives/00000419.html

Edward Goldman’s ART TALK audio and text archives available on KCRW.com: http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/at

Laurie Lamson is a writer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. She produces and directs mini-documentaries for neighborhoods, causes and organizations, and is currently raising funds to make a documentary about the Fine Art of Art Collecting classes. You can send a comment to laurie@jazzymae.com.