"ATTENTION, O.J. Simpson: You might want to steer clear of the Vered Gallery in East Hampton. While an upcoming Andy Warhol exhibition includes a 1979 portrait of The Juice, Janet Lehr, the gallery’s co-owner, said the former footballer’s mug won’t be hung anywhere near the likes of Chris Evert, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Pele, who used to have an East End home in Springs.

“O.J. will not have a prime spot,” said Lehr. “O.J. deserves no [print] space, no journalistic comment . . . I don’t think people in the Hamptons care one bit about O.J., except to vilify him.”

The gallery would rather shift the focus to Warhol’s pop paintings of Muhammad Ali, which will take center stage when the show, “Andy Warhol: Portraits of Athletes,” opens on July 31."

- Bridget Harrison, The New York Post

Andy Warhol with Richard Weisman

How Did the Warhol Athletes Come to Be?

In 1977, famed art collector Richard Weisman proposed an idea for a commissioned project to his friend, pop art icon Andy Warhol. As an avid sports fan, Weisman suggested that Warhol create a series of screen prints for him, portraying the leading sports stars of the day. This idea would become one of the most famous marriages of sports and pop art to have ever existed.  In 2007, Wesiman told The Art Newspaper: "I spoke to Andy about the idea; I knew he was a groupie and loved to meet famous people." According to Weisman's 2003 book Picasso to Pop: The Richard Weisman Collection, Warhol said, "The sports stars of today are the movie stars of yesterday."

Andy Warhol: Portraits of Athletes

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How Did the Warhol Athletes Come to Be?