Vincent Fremont (born 1950) worked his way up from freelancer and Factory assistant to producing—and sometimes directing—all of Warhol’s television programs from 1979 to 1987, to eventually becoming Warhol’s Executive Studio Manager and the Vice President of Andy Warhol Enterprises, the commercial edifice of Warhol’s collected projects and ventures. As such, he came to be one of the major faces of the entire Warhol story.
Vincent Fremont was born in San Diego, and it was from there that he embarked on a cross-country trip with a group of friends (a “conceptual group” called The Babies) to New York in 1969, a year after graduating high school. He met Andy Warhol on just his third day there; apparently, his two friends had met the artist months prior. Fremont was not unaware of Warhol and the greater art world, however, as his father, Robert Fremont, was an artist himself who exhibited his work at Esther Robles Gallery in 1962, not far from Irving Blum and Walter Hopps’ Ferus Gallery. By the time Fremont met, and was interviewed by, Warhol at age 18, he was already a fan. He started as secretary of sorts, answering the phone and sweeping the floors, but eventually became involved in the development of director Paul Morrissey and Warhol’s film, Trash, as a production assistant. This led to increasingly greater roles in Warhol’s films, as well as video projects like Phoney, which Fremont directed, Fight, and Vivian’s Girls, and by the 80s, producing all major Warhol television productions like Fashion, Andy Warhol’s T. V., and MTV’s Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes, to which Fremont is also credited as a writer. Fremont is also credited for the “time capsule” idea, referring to the boxes upon boxes of souvenirs, keepsakes, and bric-a-brac Warhol essentially hoarded in his private studio, as well as boxing and dating the first few capsules.
Today, Vincent Fremont is largely known as the CEO of ArtNews Ltd and as one of the founding directors of the Andy Warhol Foundation. He also served as the Foundation’s exclusive sales agent for nearly two decades (1991-2010). Additionally, he was closely involved in establishing the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Furthermore, Fremont and his wife, Shelly Dunn Fremont, co-directed and produced a 2000 documentary on the life of Warhol Superstar, Brigid Berlin. They currently reside in New York.
