Vogel was born in Milwaukee. By the mid-1930s he had moved to San Antonio where he studied at the Witte Memorial Museum school of art under Eleanor Onderdonk. He briefly took classes about the same time at the Corcoran School of Art, Washington, D.C., then returned to San Antonio where he graduated from high school. From 1936 to 1940 he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago before joining a Works Progress Administration easel project, which allowed him to paint full time. Vogel moved in 1942 to Dallas and found employment with the Dallas Little Theater. He joined Betty McLean in establishing the Betty McLean Gallery in a suburban area north of Dallas; after 1954 it was known as the Valley House Gallery. He composed the text of several exhibition catalogs, including Aunt Clara: The Paintings of Clara McDonald Williamson (Austin: The University of Texas Press for Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, 1966); he authored the autobiographical The Boardinghouse: The Artist Community House, Chicago 1936 – 1937 (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 1995). Vogel continues to reside in Dallas. Source: Texas Painters, Sculptors & Graphic Artists by John and Deborah Powers