Two Exhibits Open at USU's Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art
Contemporary art collectors Dorothy Vogel, with her late husband, Herbert, donated art from their impressive collection that eventually went to museums in each of the country's 50 states.
Utah State University’s Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art marks the opening of two exhibits March 19 with a reception and activities. The reception opens “The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States” and “ARTsySTEM: The Changing Climate of Arts and Sciences.” The reception is 7-9 p.m. at the museum and the public is invited.
Information on both exhibits follows.
The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States
Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, a librarian and a postman of modest means, began acquiring works by contemporary artists in the 1960s. Over the next 40 years the couple amassed a vast, diverse collection of contemporary art that included almost 5,000 pieces by roughly 200 artists. The collection focused on conceptual, minimalist and post-minimalist art.
Due to the continuing growth of their collection, in 2008 the Vogels worked with the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., to announce a gift of 2,500 works by 177 artists, with 50 works going to one museum in each state. The gift was intended to heighten public awareness of contemporary art and artists.
The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at Utah State University — NEHMA — is the beneficiary of the gift to the state of Utah and the art from the gift is featured in the current exhibit.
“The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States” presents the complete Vogel gift to the state of Utah for the first time. The exhibition includes works by Lynda Benglis, Richard Tuttle, Lucio Pozzi, Cherly Laemmle, Richard Nonas and many others. The pieces vary in style and medium and, presented as a whole, demonstrate the multitude of expressions within contemporary art.
In conjunction with the exhibition, the documentary film “Herb & Dorothy 50x50” will be shown at USU March 25 at 6 p.m. at the Kent Concert Hall located in the Chase Fine Arts Center on USU’s Logan campus. Dorothy Vogel and filmmaker Megumi Sasaki will be in attendance for a post-film discussion.
“As a museum dedicated to modern and contemporary American art, we at the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art are so honored to be the recipient of the Vogels’ gift of 50 artworks to the state of Utah and to share it with our community,” said Katie Lee Koven, executive director of the NEHMA. “The Vogels’ passion for collecting art coupled with their generosity in sharing a gift of 50 artworks to every state is unmatched on a national level.”
The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel exhibition is supported in part by Utah Division of Arts and Museums, the National Endowment for the Arts and Fuhriman’s Framing in Logan.
“The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States” is a joint initiative of the Trustees of the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection and the National Gallery of Art, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
ARTsySTEM: The Changing Climate of Arts and Sciences
The second exhibition to open March 19 is “ARTsySTEM: The Changing Climate of Arts and Sciences.”
According to exhibit organizers, the arts and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields share a necessity for undertaking imaginative inquiry of what is perceived as truth and beauty. The ARTsySTEM exhibition at USU highlights that endeavor by showcasing work that has both cursory and direct symbiotic relationships between the arts and sciences.
Artists featured in the exhibition range from being inspired by science, including Mark Dion and printmaker Taiga Chiba, to those who engage in direct scientific analysis within a branch of STEM as exampled by Allison Kudla.
“In offering this diversity of relationships between the arts and sciences through a selection of works suggesting different definitions and paradigms of the connectivity among these fields, we start to get a sense of the similar yet diverging streams of intention in the arts and sciences, along with their shared methodologies and intuitions about order and disorder,” exhibit organizes said.
ARTsySTEM combines works from the NEHMA permanent collection and selections by contemporary artists who represent multiple perspectives on the intersections of art and the sciences, according to Adriane Dalton, assistant curator at the NEHMA and co-curator of the exhibition.
“These include artistic interventions into scientific research as well as inspiration or engagement with the sciences in materials and process,” Dalton said. “The selected works focus largely on art and ecology, as seen in Brandon Balangee’s ‘Tears of Ochun,’ and on art and mathematics, as seen in works by the late Channa Horwitz.”
Prior to the March 19 opening reception in the NEHMA, Mark Dion, a conceptual artist best known for his use of scientific presentations in his installations, will give a lecture in the Caine Performance Hall at 6 p.m.
“I am very grateful to the NEHMA for contributing such important works and hosting this exhibition for the ARTsySTEM program,” said Mark Lee Koven, assistant professor of art in the Caine College of the Arts and co-curator of the exhibition. “It is an exciting opportunity that showcases well-known historical and contemporary artists crossing boundaries into the sciences and will surely encourage more cross-disciplinary dialogues.”
As a part of ARTsySTEM, the exhibition and its associated programming are made possible through the support of the Tanner Trust for Utah Universities, Marie Eccles Caine Foundation-Russell Family, the National Endowment for the Arts ART WORK Grant and multiple Utah State University entities, including the Quinney College of Natural Resources, College of Science, Caine College of the Arts, Ecology Center and the Department of Art and Design.
ARTsySTEM is organized by Mark Lee Koven in collaboration with Nancy Huntly, director of the Ecology Center and professor of biology at USU.
Admission for all museum programs and exhibitions at USU are free, including the two exhibits opening March 19, and the public is encouraged to attend.
For more information, contact Andrea DeHaan, 435-797-7239 or see the museum’s website.
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Writer and contact: Whitney Schulte, 435-797-9203, whitney.schulte@usu.edu
Alain Kirili, "AK011," charcoal on bond paper, 8.5 x 11 inches. Gift of the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection. Photo by Andrew McAllister.
Paul Vanouse, Ocular Revision, circular cabinet with electrophoresis rig, camera, power supply and blue-light transilluminator. Images of evolving map image are shown on suspended circular projection screens. Photo by Tom Loonan.
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