Hammer and Sickle (Special Edition) 165 by Andy Warhol presents a restrained field of muted gold set against a pale ground, with no tools visible. The composition feels quiet and anticipatory, defined by a single slanted plane that occupies the right side of the image. Soft edges and flat color reduce the image to pure structure. As a result, the screenprint reads as a visual pause within the series, emphasizing absence rather than form.
Hammer and Sickle (Special Edition) 165 by Andy Warhol as Part of the Special Edition Portfolio
Hammer and Sickle (Special Edition) 165 is one of seven screenprints from Andy Warhol’s 1977 Hammer and Sickle (Special Edition) portfolio. Warhol developed the series after encountering hammer-and-sickle graffiti during a trip to Italy in 1976. Rather than reproducing the symbol directly, he focused on its visual components. Consequently, the special edition isolates individual layers of the screenprinting process.
This print is distinct within the portfolio. Unlike later works that introduce tools and linework, 165 shows only the background layer later used in 166 and 167. By contrast, Warhol removes all representational elements here. The result foregrounds color, placement, and scale while delaying symbolic recognition.
Political Anxiety and Warhol’s Deliberate Distance
Although Hammer and Sickle (Special Edition) 165 appears minimal, its context carried weight. During the Cold War, American audiences viewed communist imagery with suspicion. As a result, many interpreted the portfolio as political commentary. Warhol, however, rejected that reading. When asked about the subject, he famously said, “we went off to the store and bought a hammer and sickle. Bob [editor of Warhol’s Interview Magazine] has a lawn to cut.”
That remark reflects Warhol’s consistent strategy. He stripped symbols of ideology and treated them as visual facts. In Hammer and Sickle (Special Edition) 165, he goes further by removing the symbol entirely. Even so, the work retains tension. Its emptiness points to what is coming, while also questioning how meaning forms before an image appears.
Photo credit: Andy Warhol poses with Victor Hugo, who holds the original hammer and sickle used in the works, at the opening of his “Hammer & Sickle” exhibition, Castelli Gallery, New York, January 11, 1977. Photo by Allan Tannenbaum/Getty Images.
