You know we have a passion for older eccentrics, especially from New york. We just love this film about Herb and Dorothy Vogel, true eccentrics who live in a one bedroom apartment in Manhattan with 19 turtles, lots of fish, one cat and an amazing art collection.
This unassuming couple built up one of the most important contemporary art collections in history with hardly any money. In the 1960's they began collecting the works of unknown conceptual and minimalist artists, using all of Herbs salary as a postal clerk and living on Dorothy's earnings as a librarian. They had two rules, the art had to be affordable and had to be small enough to fit into their apartment. A large portion of their collection now resides at the National Gallery of Art in Washington
Many of the creatives they supported went on to become renowned artists including, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Richard Tuttle, Chuck Close, Robert Mangold, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Lynda Benglis, Pat Steir, Robert Barry, Lucio Pozzi, and Lawrence Weiner.
After thirty years of almost obsessive collecting and buying, Herb and Dorothy follows the story of how their collection came to be and is directed by first time filmmaker Megumi Sasaki. The Palm Springs International Film Festival named the film one of their "Best of Fest" films in 2009.