Hammer and Sickle 163 by Andy Warhol is a 1977 screenprint from his bold Hammer and Sickle portfolio. The composition sets sweeping black forms and sharp yellow accents against layered planes of red. These abstracted shapes evoke the hammer’s curve and the sickle’s blade, creating tension between political icon and pure graphic design.
Origins of Warhol’s Hammer and Sickle Series
Hammer and Sickle 163 is one of four screenprints from the 1977 portfolio. Warhol conceived the series in 1976 after a trip to Italy the year before, where he noticed omnipresent hammer-and-sickle graffiti. The emblem signified the proletarian union of industrial and agricultural workers. The portfolio quickly became controversial, since many read it as a direct political statement. However, Warhol’s interest centered on the symbol’s sensational visibility during the Cold War, not on affirming the ideology it represented.
Back in New York, Warhol asked studio assistant Ronnie Cutrone to buy a hammer and a sickle and photograph them from multiple angles. Those photographs provided the source imagery for the prints and offered an alternate, literal perspective on a universally recognized icon.
Composition and Meaning in Hammer and Sickle 163
Rather than crossing the tools diagonally as on the communist flag, Warhol fragments and reorients them. Across the portfolio he often places the tools side by side or isolates parts of each object. He also uses varied shades of red that recall the flag’s palette while heightening drama. In Hammer and Sickle 163, strong reds form the background, while the tools read as stark, blacked-out silhouettes. The result is a graphic clash of color and shape that shifts attention from ideology to image.
Satire, Pop, and the Cold War
When questioned about the portfolio’s political intent, Warhol answered with characteristic irony: “We went off to the store and bought a hammer and sickle. Bob (editor of Interview Magazine) has a lawn to cut.” By pairing a feared political symbol with deadpan wit, Warhol recast the emblem through Pop Art. He drew out the blurred line between propaganda and art, seriousness and spectacle.
Ultimately, Hammer and Sickle 163 shows Warhol’s consistent ability to re-contextualize popular symbols and reimagine them from an aesthetic point of view. This approach—central to Pop Art—demonstrates how context and reproduction can transform even the most charged imagery.
Photo credit: Andy Warhol poses with Victor Hugo, who holds the original hammer and sickle the artist used in the works, at the opening of his “Hammer & Sickle” show at the Castelli Gallery, New York, January 11, 1977. Photo by Allan Tannenbaum/Getty Images.
