An unexpected gift for Harvard's art collection

A detail from "Tarascon" by Michael Goldberg, which is among 50 works being donated to Harvard. (courtesy of harvard university art museums)

The letter arrived unexpectedly last fall from a prominent pair of contemporary-art collectors in New York: Would the Harvard University Art Museums be interested in getting some of the couple's art for free?

Today, Harvard revealed what it will receive from Dorothy and Herbert Vogel: a total of 50 works, including 10 drawings by post-Minimalist Richard Tuttle, an oil painting by Abstract Expressionist Michael Goldberg, and 39 other pieces by contemporary American artists.

"This is not the kind of thing that normally happens, when you get a letter from a collector who wants to give you a whole bunch of drawings without your having asked them, wooed them, or begged them," said Helen Molesworth, HUAM's curator of contemporary art.

The donation to Harvard is part of a larger gift coordinated through the National Gallery of Art, National Endowment for the Arts, and Institute of Museum and Library Services in which the Vogels will donate 2,500 works from their collection to art institutions across the country. One institution in each state will receive 50 works. Other recipients include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Seattle Art Museum, and New Orleans Museum of Art.

While Molesworth was excited about the Harvard gift - which includes works on paper by Stephen Antonakos, Ronald Bladen, and Edda Renouf - the public may not get to see any of the art until at least 2013. Harvard's Fogg and Busch-Reisinger museums will close at the end of June for a massive renovation project scheduled to be completed that year.

The Vogels were not available for interviews yesterday, according to Steve Konick, a National Gallery spokesman.