Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Still Life - (Hammer & Sickle), 1977
Graphite on T. H. Saunders paper.
68 x 103 cm.
Copyright The Artist
Further images
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 1)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 2)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 3)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 4)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 5)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 6)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 7)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 8)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 9)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 10)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 11)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 12)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 13)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 14)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 15)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 16)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 17)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 18)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 19)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 20)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 21)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 22)
Still Life - Hammer & Sickle - 1977. Unique work. Graphite on T. H. Saunders paper 68 x 103 cm. This works is authenticated by The Andy Warhol Art Authentication...
Still Life - Hammer & Sickle - 1977. Unique work. Graphite on T. H. Saunders paper 68 x 103 cm.
This works is authenticated by The Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, Inc. vf 31.0.25
Almost identical to a work exhibited at Haunch of vension "Andy Warhol - Hammer and Sickle 19 May - 15 June 2004.
Full page in catalogue.
Last one from same series sold for 125.000 usd incl. fees - Phillips - November 2019.
From Phaidon:
What were Andy Warhol’s politics? His love of money and commerce is well established, as are his many portraits of socialites and international business people - among them Hyatt Hotel and Pritzker Prize founder Jay Pritzker - who were keen to be immortalised by him. Yet other pictures could be seen to lionize Chairman Mao, endorse the Green Party and vilify Richard Nixon.
In 1975, even casual observers of the pop artist’s work began to enquire about his politics, when he began to create a series of photographs and screen prints of hammers and sickles.
Warhol first became interested in this imagery following a business trip to Italy in late October 1975, when the country was in the grip of widespread left-wing protest and turmoil.
Warhol had begun to paint his portraits of Chairman Mao only a few years earlier, and in Italy the artist was asked constantly about his Mao pictures and his own political position.
While in Italy, he also came across the hammer and sickle symbol - originally conceived during the Russian Revolution, but later adopted by leftist labour movements in Italy and elsewhere – in graffiti.
Upon his return to New York, Warhol chose to incorporate the symbol into a new series of pictures and, unsatisfied with existing representations of the hammer and sickle, chose to shoot his own still life, from which he developed his screen prints.
The hammer and sickle series forms part of a larger set of still lifes, which include better-known works, such as his skull photographs and drawings. The photos were actually taken by Warhol’s long-standing collaborator Edward Wallowitch, and some assemblages included a copy of The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, which Warhol was promoting at the time.
It’s unclear whether Warhol, in producing these works, wanted to align himself with any leftist cause. When asked about the pictures political content, Warhol simply said “we went off to the store and bought a hammer and sickle. Bob [Colacello, editor of Warhol’s Interview magazine] has a lawn to cut.”
On another occasion he claimed, in the interests of political balance, he conceived the hammer and sickle images for Communism and the skull – a common insignia in Nazi uniforms – for fascism.
Though perhaps with Warhol – who once happily explained he was “a deeply superficial person” – it’s better to look at the pictures’ surfaces, rather than into their depths.
The hammer and sickle still lifes are remarkable within Warhol’s oeuvre, as he tended not to produce very many still life works. As we explain in volume four of our Catalogue Raisonné, these mid-Seventies works are remarkable for their division of the background into two distinct spatial zones, as opposed to his flatter paintings, and the works’ shadow play, which eventually culminated in a near-abstract series entirely devoted to shadows.
Today, getting on for three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, pop-art collectors across the political spectrum have grown to love Andy’s hammer and sickles.
This works is authenticated by The Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, Inc. vf 31.0.25
Almost identical to a work exhibited at Haunch of vension "Andy Warhol - Hammer and Sickle 19 May - 15 June 2004.
Full page in catalogue.
Last one from same series sold for 125.000 usd incl. fees - Phillips - November 2019.
From Phaidon:
What were Andy Warhol’s politics? His love of money and commerce is well established, as are his many portraits of socialites and international business people - among them Hyatt Hotel and Pritzker Prize founder Jay Pritzker - who were keen to be immortalised by him. Yet other pictures could be seen to lionize Chairman Mao, endorse the Green Party and vilify Richard Nixon.
In 1975, even casual observers of the pop artist’s work began to enquire about his politics, when he began to create a series of photographs and screen prints of hammers and sickles.
Warhol first became interested in this imagery following a business trip to Italy in late October 1975, when the country was in the grip of widespread left-wing protest and turmoil.
Warhol had begun to paint his portraits of Chairman Mao only a few years earlier, and in Italy the artist was asked constantly about his Mao pictures and his own political position.
While in Italy, he also came across the hammer and sickle symbol - originally conceived during the Russian Revolution, but later adopted by leftist labour movements in Italy and elsewhere – in graffiti.
Upon his return to New York, Warhol chose to incorporate the symbol into a new series of pictures and, unsatisfied with existing representations of the hammer and sickle, chose to shoot his own still life, from which he developed his screen prints.
The hammer and sickle series forms part of a larger set of still lifes, which include better-known works, such as his skull photographs and drawings. The photos were actually taken by Warhol’s long-standing collaborator Edward Wallowitch, and some assemblages included a copy of The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, which Warhol was promoting at the time.
It’s unclear whether Warhol, in producing these works, wanted to align himself with any leftist cause. When asked about the pictures political content, Warhol simply said “we went off to the store and bought a hammer and sickle. Bob [Colacello, editor of Warhol’s Interview magazine] has a lawn to cut.”
On another occasion he claimed, in the interests of political balance, he conceived the hammer and sickle images for Communism and the skull – a common insignia in Nazi uniforms – for fascism.
Though perhaps with Warhol – who once happily explained he was “a deeply superficial person” – it’s better to look at the pictures’ surfaces, rather than into their depths.
The hammer and sickle still lifes are remarkable within Warhol’s oeuvre, as he tended not to produce very many still life works. As we explain in volume four of our Catalogue Raisonné, these mid-Seventies works are remarkable for their division of the background into two distinct spatial zones, as opposed to his flatter paintings, and the works’ shadow play, which eventually culminated in a near-abstract series entirely devoted to shadows.
Today, getting on for three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, pop-art collectors across the political spectrum have grown to love Andy’s hammer and sickles.