During a trip to Italy, in the mid-70s, Warhol saw graffiti of the hammer and sickle symbol all over Napes. Back home, he immediately asked his studio assistant, Ronnie Cutrone, to source some hammer and sickle illustrations for him. But the two-dimensional drawings were lacking:
“The answer was to go down to Canal Street, into a hardware store, and buy a real hammer and a real sickle. Then I could shoot them, lit with menacing shadows, and add the drama that was missing.”
After photographing the still life, Warhol moved on to graphite drawings:
And, eventually, to screenscreens and paintings:
True to form, the works were no more political than Warhol’s Maos, as Ronnie Cutrone noted:
“Andy was still out shopping in the morning, eating McDonald’s, and working with me in the afternoons on the Hammer and Sickles.”
All images from C&M Arts catalog, 2002.
*And if you’re looking for the very best documentary on Warhol ever made, can I recommend Absolut Warhola?
Spetsarkhiv 