The Spencer Museum of Art at Kansas University will receive 50 new works of art through a unique gift that will spread contemporary art throughut the country.

“The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States” was announced this week. An art institution in each state will receive 50 pieces.

The Vogels, who live in New York City, began collecting art in the 1960s. They used Dorothy’s salary as a librarian to cover their expenses and devoted Herbert’s salary as a postal carrier to their art acquisitions.

The best-known parts of their collection are minimalist and conceptual art, but the donations also explore the post-minimalist period. Included in their gift are drawings, paintings, sculptures, photographs and prints.

They focused especially on drawings, many of which represent artists’ original ideas, while others act as plans to be followed by a collaborator in the making of a work of art.

The pieces in the Spencer portion of the donation include works by Richard Tuttle and Gene Davis.

The Vogels have worked closely with the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., since 1991, when the gallery acquired a portion of the collection.