MYANDYWARHOL.COM

http://www.myandywarhol.com/

 This website is about Joe Simon’s battle with the Warhol foundation, their dealer Vincent Fremont and its arm the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board Inc.  

 In the course of this battle, Simon gained a lifetime’s knowledge of how Andy worked, thought about his art and wanted to be remembered.

 The board has unjustly (most art experts think) declared Joe Simon’s Warhol self portrait a fake. They have stamped it denied twice, (which runs through the picture) thereby ruining any possibility that it could be accepted as a genuine Warhol in the future.

 You make up your own mind, go into the site, read the evidence which has been accumulated, weigh the testimony of Warhol’s friends, colleagues and studio assistants who were there in the early days and who have a thorough knowledge of Warhol’s working methods in general and this portrait in particular. 

top, Paul Morrissey confirming the authenticity of joe Simon's myandywarhol

Joe Simon with myandywarhol at the Bruce Museum

Sam Green, curator of Warhol's 1965 retrospective, confirming the authenticity of Myandywarhol.com, also known as “Double Denied”

 The issues raised inside are about the very nature of Andy’s achievement. He is now considered one of the most important artists of the 20^th century; the way he worked and thought about art in new ways is fundamental to understanding the nature of his genius.

 Joe Simon is an American film producer now living in London. The story begins in 1989 when he purchased an Andy Warhol self-portrait for the considerable sum of $195,000.  Most of Simon’s friends and family bought a house, he bought a Warhol. Simon loved the work and had known Andy quite well when he was a kid, so a self-portrait of the artist appealed to him. The fact that myandywarhol was signed by Andy was very important to Simon. The work had been authenticated by the executors of Andy Warhol as well as his estate and the foundation before it had been purchased.

 When Simon went to sell the piece 17 years later, he was convinced by the dealer for the foundation to submit the piece to the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board Inc, as it would be beneficial to be included in the catalogue raisonne they were editing.

 The picture came back ruined, without any explanation other than the fact that the board and the foundation which employ them have very deep pockets and will ‘drag Simon through the courts until he bleeds” .  They told him the painting could resubmitted after he had researched its history and provenance.

 It was then that Simon learned that the Foundation’s dealer Vincent Fremont (the man who convinced him to submit Double Denied for authentication) had also “applied” Warhol’s signature onto the painting.  Andy’s signature was one of the reasons the picture had been purchased in the first place.  At the time, other unsigned paintings from this series were selling for approx 10% of what Simon paid; such was the premium for Warhol’s signature.

 After spending years of interviewing Warhol’s close associates, trawling through the archives at the Warhol Museum, the New York public library, sought guidance from several of the worlds’ leading conservation scientists such as Dr. Thomas Learner, historians John Richardson, Warhol associates Paul Morrissey, Gerard Malanga, Sam Green.. and, at the request of the Authentication Board, their dealer and lawyer;  spent vast sums of money which Joe Simon could ill afford to research the picture,  he resubmitted the work -now with an impeccable provenance - only to be told yet again that the picture was not right and, to rub salt into the wound, that no matter what was found they would never authenticate myandywarhol.

 So, here he is, not really being the confrontational type, having sued the foundation and is now hoping to raise enough funds to fight this giant, as they will attempt to spend their way to an acquittal unless they realise that he mean to take this to the end.

 This is not just Joe Simon’s fight, it’s a fight for the integrity of Andy Warhol’s work. 

 Simon needs your support, so log on if you can.

http://www.myandywarhol.com