Herb & Dorothy

This fascinating glimpse into the world of art collecting acquaints viewers with Herb and Dorothy Vogel, a New York City postal worker and a librarian, respectively, who managed to leverage a limited budget into a stunning collection of contemporary works. Alongside their pedestrian careers, the couple's great passion was art (both were originally wannabe artists), and they began buying things in the early 1960s, usually from artists who were little known at the time—such as Andy Warhol, Julian Schnabel, and Chuck Close. Their interests were primarily in the realm of the Conceptual and Minimalist movements, and they were guided by two principles: the piece had to be affordable and it had to be small enough to fit in their one-bedroom apartment. Filmmaker Megumi Sasaki follows the Vogels as they go from their overcrowded domestic surroundings to meet artists in studios and curators in museums and galleries, chatting along the way about their backgrounds and tastes. Modest but discerning, and living “only for art,” Herb and Dorothy end up enriching the lives of countless other patrons, as security concerns lead them to donate a good part of their collection to Washington, D.C.'s National Gallery (although the museum pays a small sum that allows them to live more comfortably, they use much of the money to buy more art). DVD extras include deleted scenes, festival appearances, and theatrical premiere footage. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (S. Rees)