Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1480367
often used their house for art exhibitions, collaborating with Betty Blake, formerly Betty McLean, whose namesake Dallas gallery was one of the first in Texas to exhibit modern art. In 1957, the frame shop was expanded to include an exhibition space, and Valley House Gallery was born. It quickly gained recognition for offering important works by Cézanne, Rouault, and Monet, including a priceless piece from the latter's "Water Lilies" series. The sculpture garden, designed a few years later by landscape architect Clarence Roy, became a prominent outdoor exhibition space, often featuring solo shows by important international sculptors, including Henry Moore. Donald's second wife, landscape architect Erika Farkac Vogel, redesigned the sculpture garden, which remains one of the most beautiful private gardens in the country. Kevin was 19 when he began working full- time in the gallery, just after his mother died. "He's been in the gallery ever since — it was a life meant to be," says his wife, Cheryl Vogel, a Palm Beach transplant studying art history at SMU in 1978 when Donald hired her as an intern. "I was interviewing for the job, and Kevin walked in," she says. She was smitten at first sight. "He was heading off to the airfield to go flying — he was a glider pilot. I thought it was very exotic." They married four years later. After Donald's death in 2004, Kevin and Cheryl, who by then were already running the gallery and garden, moved into Valley House. For the last two decades, the Vogels have been dedicated stewards of this remarkable and storied property. "There's really no separation between home or gallery or garden," Cheryl says. "Everything is intertwined — it's a lovely life." and the occasional bobcat and coyote. Recently, an elusive yellow crested night heron flapped from its hiding spot in the pond to pursue a squirrel across the manicured lawn. "I feel like I'm the luckiest guy in the world to live in a house like this on a property like this — it's magical," he says. In 1953, his parents — painter Donald Vogel and his wife, Peggy — bought six heavily wooded acres off a dead- end gravel road in far north Dallas, which is now a busy six-lane artery, Spring Valley Road. They hired Fort Worth architect John Wesley Jones to help design the family homestead, which they named Valley House. Its modernist design was avant-garde for Dallas, with an open floor plan and ceilings and windows almost 14 feet high. Local interior designer Earl Hart Miller sourced handmade brick floors as a gift for the couple, and the house is replete with tactile materials such as cork floor tiles, plaster walls, and oak ceiling beams. Donald built a spacious painting studio for himself inside the house, along with a frame shop on the property for extra income — it was wood from this frame shop he used to build the family's rowboat, Kevin remembers. The Vogels The house's open-plan layout was an avant-garde forerunner of mid-century design. Original elements have been preserved, including handmade brick floors, plaster walls, and beamed ceilings. The original Steinway & Sons piano sourced by composer Walter Hendl was destroyed in a flood in 1964 and replaced. Artwork above the piano is by Sean Cairns. Vladimir Kagan- inspired sofa, circa 1980. Blue painting by Valton Tyler. Steel sculpture by Philip John Evett. (Continued)