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Susan Mullin Vogel
Occupation(s)Curator, Filmmaker, Professor, Scholar
Years active1966 or 1967 to present

Susan Mullin Vogel is a curator, professor, scholar, and filmmaker whose area of focus is African art.[1] She was a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, founded what is now The Africa Center in the early 1980s, served as Director of the Yale University Art Gallery, taught African art and architecture at Columbia University, and has made films.[2][3][4]

Early life

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Susan Vogel was born in Detroit. She had a parent who worked in the overseas division of General Motors, so she grew up in Beirut, and also lived parts of her early life in Greenwich, Connecticut and Puerto Rico. She attended Georgetown University as an undergraduate. After graduating, she moved to Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire after marrying Jerry Vogel, who was sent there on a Fulbright fellowship.[5]

Professional career

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After her return to the United States in 1966, having "fallen in love with the place and with the art" in Cote d'Ivoire, Vogel worked at the Museum of Primitive Art, founded by Nelson A. Rockefeller, at the same time earning her Ph.D. in art history from New York University. She worked at the Museum of Primitive Art for eight years, during which time she wrote extensively and became an assistant curator. In 1975, after Rockefeller donated the holdings of the Museum of Primitive Art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where it would be housed in the new Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, Vogel joined the Metropolitan Museum as an associate curator, where she managed the collection and its display through the 1982 opening of the Rockefeller Wing.[5][6]

In 1984, in New York City, she founded the Center for African Art, later the Museum for African Art (and now the Africa Center). While running that museum for ten years, she curated a number of widely praised exhibitions and wrote, co-wrote or published accompanying books.

In 1994, she was named as Director of the Yale Art Gallery. Richard Levin, the President of Yale at the time, said "Susan Vogel is widely respected as an innovator and leader in the museum world. She is a proven institution builder: the museum she founded in New York began as a small center and has grown in just over a decade to a major museum."[6]

Vogel won the 1998 Herskovits Prize for Baule: African Art, Western Eyes,[7] which was later incorporated into a John Edmonds installation at the Brooklyn Museum.[8][9] Among her other notable books and articles are African Aesthetics, and Buli Master and Other Hands.[10] She has also written extensively about the life and art of El Anatsui,[11][12] including El Anatsui: Art and Life in 2020.[13]

In 2004, she was appointed Professor of African art and architecture at Columbia.[14]

Following her career as an art museum leader, Vogel spent two years as a graduate film student at New York University, and became a documentary filmmaker.[14]

Personal life

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Vogel has lived for long periods of time in Côte d'Ivoire and Mali.[15] She was married to Jerome "Jerry" Vogel from 1964 to 1987.[16] She is now married to Columbia professor Kenneth Prewitt.[17]

Works

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Books

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  • African Sculpture: The Shape of Surprise (1980) (exhibition catalog)
  • The Buli Master, and Other Hands (1980) (short)
  • African Masterpieces from The Musee de l'Homme (1985) (with Francine N'Diaye)
  • African Aesthetics: The Carlo Monzino Collection (1986) (co-author)
  • Art/Artifact: African Art in Anthropology Collections (1988) (editor, introduction)
  • Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art (1991)
  • Exhibition-ism: Museums and African Art (1994) (co-author)
  • Baule: African Art Western Eyes (1997)
  • El Anatsui: Art and Life (2012, 2nd ed. 2020)

Films

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  • Living Memory: Six Sketches of Mali Today (2003)
  • Fang: An Epic Journey (2003) (short)
  • Malick Sidibe: Portrait of the Artist as a Portraitist (2006) (short)[18]
  • Future of Mud: A Tale of Houses and Lives in Djenne (2007)[19]
  • Anatsui at Work: Eight Shorts for Museums and Classrooms (2011)
  • Fold Crumple Crush: The Art of El Anatsui (2011)

Selected articles

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  • "People of Wood: Baule Figure Sculpture," Art Journal, vol. 33, No. 1 (1973)[20]
  • "Art and Politics: A Staff from the Court of Benin, West Africa," Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 13 (1978)[21]
  • "Bringing African Art to the Metropolitan Museum," African Arts, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Feb. 1982)[22]
  • "Africa and the Renaissance: Art in Ivory," African Arts, Vol. 22, No. 2 (1989)[23]
  • "Always True to the Object, in Our Fashion," Chapter 13 of Karp, Ivan; Lavine, Steven D., eds. (1991). Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display. Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 9781560980216.
  • "Baule: African Art Western Eyes," African Arts, Vol. 30, No. 4 (1997)[24]
  • "Whither African Art? Emerging Scholarship at the End of an Age," African Arts, Vol. 38, No. 4 (2005) [25]

References

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  1. ^ Worth, Alexi (19 February 2009). "El Anatsui (Published 2009)". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  2. ^ Cotter, Holland (18 September 2018). "Mary Nooter Roberts, Champion of African Art, Is Dead at 58 (Published 2018)". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  3. ^ Petersen, Kelsey L. "Intervening the Canon: Susan Vogel and the Museum for African Art - ProQuest". ProQuest. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  4. ^ "Park Avenue Armory gets a new weapon in its arsenal". Crain's New York Business. 12 March 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  5. ^ a b Reif, Rita (7 February 1993). "ARTS/ARTIFACTS; For African Art Treasures, a Place to Spread Out". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  6. ^ a b Rule, Sheila (17 August 1994). "The Yale Art Gallery Names a New Director". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  7. ^ Abiodun, Rowland (1999). "Vogel's Baule: African Art, Western Eyes wins 1998 Herskovits Award". ASA News. 32 (1): 6–7. doi:10.1017/S0002021400016212. ISSN 0278-2219. S2CID 194535387. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  8. ^ Tauer, Kristen (6 November 2020). "Inside John Edmonds' Solo Exhibit 'A Sidelong Glance' at Brooklyn Museum". WWD. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  9. ^ Dykstra, Jean (14 December 2020). "John Edmonds: A Sidelong Glance". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  10. ^ Clarke, Christa; Arkenberg, Rebecca (2006). The Art of Africa: A Resource for Educators. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 216. ISBN 978-1-58839-190-2. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  11. ^ Collier, Delinda (28 August 2019). "El Anatsui: Art and Life by Susan Vogel (review)". African Arts. 52 (3): 90–91. doi:10.1162/afar_r_00491. ISSN 1937-2108. S2CID 214374948. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  12. ^ WILKIN, KAREN (2013). "El Anatsui at the Brooklyn Museum". The Hudson Review. 66 (1): 209–212. ISSN 0018-702X. JSTOR 43488693. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  13. ^ "Art history event tackles race and museums". Mountain Democrat. 19 February 2021. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  14. ^ a b "The Films of Susan Vogel". First Run Icarus Films. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  15. ^ "Susan Vogel". www.susan-vogel.com. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  16. ^ Vogel, Susan Mullin; Peek, Philip M.; Cotter, Holland (June 2015). "Jerome M. Vogel 1933–2014". African Arts. 48 (2): 5–7. doi:10.1162/AFAR_a_00212. ISSN 0001-9933. S2CID 57569620. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  17. ^ "Professor Kenneth Prewitt". Staff Directory, The Earth Institute, Columbia University. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  18. ^ "Icarus Films: Malick Sidibé". Icarus Films. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  19. ^ "Icarus Films: Future of Mud". Icarus Films. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  20. ^ Vogel, Susan Mullin (1973). "People of Wood: Baule Figure Sculpture". Art Journal. 33 (1): 23–26. doi:10.2307/775667. ISSN 0004-3249. JSTOR 775667. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  21. ^ Vogel, Susan Mullin (1978). "Art and Politics: A Staff from the Court of Benin, West Africa". Metropolitan Museum Journal. 13: 87–100. doi:10.2307/1512713. ISSN 0077-8958. JSTOR 1512713. S2CID 155849155. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  22. ^ Vogel, Susan (1982). "Bringing African Art to the Metropolitan Museum". African Arts. 15 (2): 38–45. doi:10.2307/3335964. ISSN 0001-9933. JSTOR 3335964. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  23. ^ Vogel, Susan (1989). "Africa and the Renaissance: Art in Ivory". African Arts. 22 (2): 84–104. doi:10.2307/3336722. ISSN 0001-9933. JSTOR 3336722. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  24. ^ Vogel, Susan Mullin (1997). "Baule: African Art Western Eyes". African Arts. 30 (4): 64–95. doi:10.2307/3337555. ISSN 0001-9933. JSTOR 3337555. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  25. ^ Vogel, Susan (2005). "Whither African Art? Emerging Scholarship at the End of an Age". African Arts. 38 (4): 12–91. doi:10.1162/afar.2005.38.4.12. ISSN 0001-9933. JSTOR 20447729. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
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