Andy WarholHammer and Sickle Composition. 1977

Colour photo-lithograph of a ‘Hammer and Sickle’ still life

arrangement. (See notes below). Signed in black felt-tip pen. On

stiff cream card with the invitation text on the reverse. Totally fresh

condition. 152 x 183 mm.

Provenance: Robert William Burke. Burke was an American

art dealer, collector and bibliophile who went to live in Paris in the 1960’s.

He was a close friend of many of the most avant-garde artists of the period –

including  Lewitt, Rauschenberg, Twombly, Gilbert and George etc – but

above all of Andy Warhol. When Warhol was in Paris he stayed at Burke’s

left-bank apartment. This signed lithograph invitation card was a gift from

Warhol in 1977 and therefore has an impeccable provenance. 

The theme of the ‘Hammer and Sickle’ in Warhol’s work was

initially one of his most controversial, but ultimately amongst the most

admired, of the 70’s period.

Warhol became interested in the theme in the early 1970’s

following a visit to Italy when it was widely seen in graffiti. He thought that

he could use it to bring together on the one side an allusion to the influence

of  ‘political ideas’ on everyday life and on the other the classical art

concept of the ‘still life’ – that is an arrangement of objects to create

visual forms and space.

He always emphasized that these works were not an indication

of support for Communism but rather that, by taking an extremely widely known

political symbol and transforming it into a visual theme, he could remove its

doctrinal meaning through art.

In 1976 in New York Warhol sent his studio assistant Ronnie

Cuttrone out to buy a hammer and a sickle. Warhol then arranged the two in

various positions against painted backgrounds using the shapes as a purely

visual art concept. Cuttrone then photographed them. The result was the 1976

series of prints and also a series of paintings. The image on this illustrated

invitation was taken from one of these still life arrangements set against a

brush painted background on paper and newsprint.