Susan Mullin Vogel

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, Côte d'Ivoire after marrying Jerry Vogel, who was sent there on a Fulbright fellowship.{{cite news |last1=Reif |first1=Rita |title=ARTS/ARTIFACTS; For African Art Treasures, a Place to Spread Out |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/07/arts/arts-artifacts-for-african-art-treasures-a-place-to-spread-out.html |access-date=12 March 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=7 February 1993}}

After her return to the United States in 1966, having "fallen in love with the place and with the art" in Côte 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.

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."{{cite news |last1=Rule |first1=Sheila |title=The Yale Art Gallery Names a New Director |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/17/arts/the-yale-art-gallery-names-a-new-director.html |access-date=7 March 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=17 August 1994}}

Vogel won the 1998 Herskovits Prize for Baule: African Art, Western Eyes,{{cite journal |last1=Abiodun |first1=Rowland |title=Vogel's Baule: African Art, Western Eyes wins 1998 Herskovits Award |journal=ASA News |date=1999 |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=6–7 |doi=10.1017/S0002021400016212 |s2cid=194535387 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/asa-news/article/abs/vogels-baule-african-art-western-eyes-wins-1998-herskovits-award/EB377A95CD799F17F074774FA30B4BD5 |access-date=6 March 2021 |language=en |issn=0278-2219|url-access=subscription }} which was later incorporated into a John Edmonds installation at the Brooklyn Museum.{{cite news |last1=Tauer |first1=Kristen |title=Inside John Edmonds' Solo Exhibit 'A Sidelong Glance' at Brooklyn Museum |url=https://wwd.com/eye/people/photographer-john-edmonds-brooklyn-museum-a-sidelong-glance-exhibit-1234650538/ |access-date=6 March 2021 |work=WWD |date=6 November 2020}}{{cite news |last1=Dykstra |first1=Jean |title=John Edmonds: A Sidelong Glance |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2020/12/artseen/John-Edmonds |access-date=6 March 2021 |work=The Brooklyn Rail |date=14 December 2020}} Among her other notable books and articles are African Aesthetics, and Buli Master and Other Hands.{{cite book |last1=Clarke |first1=Christa |last2=Arkenberg |first2=Rebecca |title=The Art of Africa: A Resource for Educators |date=2006 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn=978-1-58839-190-2 |page=216 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6s6QN-rVWcIC&q=susan+vogel+african+art |access-date=6 March 2021 |language=en}} She has also written extensively about the life and art of El Anatsui,{{cite journal |last1=Collier |first1=Delinda |title=El Anatsui: Art and Life by Susan Vogel (review) |journal=African Arts |date=28 August 2019 |volume=52 |issue=3 |pages=90–91 |doi=10.1162/afar_r_00491 |s2cid=214374948 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/732071 |access-date=6 March 2021 |language=en |issn=1937-2108|url-access=subscription }}{{cite journal |last1=WILKIN |first1=KAREN |title=El Anatsui at the Brooklyn Museum |journal=The Hudson Review |date=2013 |volume=66 |issue=1 |pages=209–212 |jstor=43488693 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43488693 |access-date=6 March 2021 |issn=0018-702X}} including El Anatsui: Art and Life in 2020.{{cite news |title=Art history event tackles race and museums |url=https://www.mtdemocrat.com/prospecting/art-history-event-tackles-race-and-museums/ |access-date=6 March 2021 |work=Mountain Democrat |date=19 February 2021}}

In 2004, she was appointed Professor of African art and architecture at Columbia.{{cite web |title=The Films of Susan Vogel |url=https://cdn.atria.nl/ezines/web/ElectricJournalHumanSexuality/1998-2005/ejhs/vog.html |website=First Run Icarus Films |access-date=7 March 2021}}

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.

Vogel has lived for long periods of time in Côte d'Ivoire and Mali.{{cite web |title=Susan Vogel |url=http://www.susan-vogel.com/Susan-Vogel/Vogel.html |website=www.susan-vogel.com |access-date=6 March 2021}}

She was married to Jerome "Jerry" Vogel from 1964 to 1987.{{cite journal |last1=Vogel |first1=Susan Mullin |last2=Peek |first2=Philip M. |last3=Cotter |first3=Holland |title=Jerome M. Vogel 1933–2014 |journal=African Arts |date=June 2015 |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=5–7 |doi=10.1162/AFAR_a_00212 |s2cid=57569620 |url=https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00212 |access-date=6 March 2021 |language=en |issn=0001-9933|url-access=subscription }} She is now married to Columbia professor Kenneth Prewitt.{{cite web |title=Professor Kenneth Prewitt |url=https://www.earth.columbia.edu/users/profile/kenneth-prewitt |website=Staff Directory, The Earth Institute, Columbia University |access-date=7 March 2021}}

• 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)

• 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){{cite web |title=Icarus Films: Malick Sidibé |url=http://icarusfilms.com/if-mali |website=Icarus Films |access-date=7 March 2021}}
• Future of Mud: A Tale of Houses and Lives in Djenne (2007){{cite web |title=Icarus Films: Future of Mud |url=http://icarusfilms.com/if-mud |website=Icarus Films |access-date=7 March 2021}}
• Anatsui at Work: Eight Shorts for Museums and Classrooms (2011)
• Fold Crumple Crush: The Art of El Anatsui (2011)

• "People of Wood: Baule Figure Sculpture," Art Journal, vol. 33, No. 1 (1973){{cite journal |last1=Vogel |first1=Susan Mullin |title=People of Wood: Baule Figure Sculpture |journal=Art Journal |date=1973 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=23–26 |doi=10.2307/775667 |jstor=775667 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/775667 |access-date=12 March 2021 |issn=0004-3249|url-access=subscription }}
• "Art and Politics: A Staff from the Court of Benin, West Africa," Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 13 (1978){{cite journal |last1=Vogel |first1=Susan Mullin |title=Art and Politics: A Staff from the Court of Benin, West Africa |journal=Metropolitan Museum Journal |date=1978 |volume=13 |pages=87–100 |doi=10.2307/1512713 |jstor=1512713 |s2cid=155849155 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1512713 |access-date=12 March 2021 |issn=0077-8958|url-access=subscription }}
• "Bringing African Art to the Metropolitan Museum," African Arts, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Feb. 1982){{cite journal |last1=Vogel |first1=Susan |title=Bringing African Art to the Metropolitan Museum |journal=African Arts |date=1982 |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=38–45 |doi=10.2307/3335964 |jstor=3335964 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3335964 |access-date=12 March 2021 |issn=0001-9933|url-access=subscription }}
• "Africa and the Renaissance: Art in Ivory," African Arts, Vol. 22, No. 2 (1989){{cite journal |last1=Vogel |first1=Susan |title=Africa and the Renaissance: Art in Ivory |journal=African Arts |date=1989 |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=84–104 |doi=10.2307/3336722 |jstor=3336722 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3336722 |access-date=12 March 2021 |issn=0001-9933|url-access=subscription }}
• "Always True to the Object, in Our Fashion," Chapter 13 of {{cite book |editor-last1=Karp |editor-first1=Ivan |editor-last2=Lavine |editor-first2=Steven D. |title=Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |year=1991 |isbn=9781560980216 }}
• "Baule: African Art Western Eyes," African Arts, Vol. 30, No. 4 (1997){{cite journal |last1=Vogel |first1=Susan Mullin |title=Baule: African Art Western Eyes |journal=African Arts |date=1997 |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=64–95 |doi=10.2307/3337555 |jstor=3337555 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3337555 |access-date=12 March 2021 |issn=0001-9933}}
• "Whither African Art? Emerging Scholarship at the End of an Age," African Arts, Vol. 38, No. 4 (2005) {{cite journal |last1=Vogel |first1=Susan |title=Whither African Art? Emerging Scholarship at the End of an Age |journal=African Arts |date=2005 |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=12–91 |doi=10.1162/afar.2005.38.4.12 |jstor=20447729 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20447729 |access-date=12 March 2021 |issn=0001-9933|url-access=subscription }}

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Category:20th-century American historians