Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Lot 708 Property of a Distinguished European Collector

Andy Warhol (1928-1987)

Hammer and Sickle

Closed16 November 2018

Price Realised

USD 468,500

More Information

How to sell

Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Hammer and Sickle
signed and dedicated 'to Henry G Andy Warhol 1979' (on the overlap)
synthetic polymer and silkscreen ink on canvas
15 x 19 in. (38.1 x 48.3 cm.)
Painted in 1976.

Henry Geldzahler, New York, acquired directly from the artist
John Cheim, New York
Private collection, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Specialist note

"Following the trail of the Maos, in 1976 Andy did silkscreens of hammers and sickles. His fondness for communist iconography may have been partly motivated by a desire to please European collectors and critics, who tended to read Marxist meanings into his work, but he had always favored images of private identity resisting (and succumbing to) mass culture's manic replications, and he had always sought the literal's face overruling the figurative." (W. Koestenbaum, Andy Warhol, New York, 2001, p. 170).