finally, finally, finally I got to see the documentary Herb & Dorothy. I remember when I first heard about this movie, I added it to my netflix queue, saving until it came out on dvd. Recently I saw someone mention that they had rented it and so I bumped it to the top of my queue.
I have to say, if you love art you you will like this movie; if you love abstract, contemporary and minimal art you will LOVE this movie. Piece after piece, I felt like I had to scribble down the artists names. It was one of those things (like the Gaiman talk) that made me want to rush to my studio and start producing artwork with passion. It also made me; want to collect artwork, sad that the local art gallery in town closed down and regretful that I didn’t purchase some pieces I really wanted in that gallery while I had the chance. Here is the wikipedia page on the couple.
Impressions left on me after seeing the movie:
-They love animals.
-Both Herb and Dorothy started out creating artwork of their own. Gradually, once they started collecting others’ work, they removed their own artwork from the walls to be replaced by other artists’ work, until they realized they enjoyed other people’s work and collecting it, more than they enjoyed making their own.
-They bought what they loved, not as an investment or with the potential that they would sell it, but because they thought the pieces were beautiful and interesting and wanted to own them.
-They donated parts of their collection to the National Gallery specifically because; the work would be kept (never sold), that the National Gallery was owned by the government as they both held jobs working for the government (as a postal worker and librarian) and visitors to the gallery can go for free and would be accessible to anyone.
-It has taken the National Gallery (5) 40 ft. moving trucks to move all the artwork from their one bedroom, rent controlled apartment in Manhattan.
-The rest of their collection is to be/was donated, 50 pieces to 50 institutions in 50 states.
