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Skulls & Hammer and Sickles

September 8, 2006- October 28, 2006

Andy Warhol

Perry Rubenstein Gallery

534 W 24th St

Perry Rubenstein Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by Andy Warhol, Skulls & Hammer and Sickles. This politically charged exhibition of silkscreens on canvas will act as a posthumous premiere, as the show was originally scheduled to open in Italy in the late 1970s. However, due to the unique political climate of the time and the 'crisis' triggered by the Red Brigade, the exhibition never came to fruition. The Skulls (1974-76) juxtaposed with the Hammer and Sickles (1976-77) offer an ironic dialogue between fascism and communism that directly reflected Italy in the late 1970s. This marks the first known exhibition of these works being shown together as originally intended by Warhol.

Warhol began working on his Skull series in the mid-1970s, a body of work that served to contrast the predominating, commissioned portraits of glamorous, wealthy and famous figures of the decade. The Skulls, directly alluding to fascism, was Warhol's reaction to the overwhelming positive response of Italian leftists to the Ladies and Gentleman, exhibited at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, Italy, in 1975. The Skulls functioned as a 'memento mori' to the bourgeois by forcing them to recognize their fate in the hands of Fascists.

During Warhol's exhibition at the Palazzo, he became increasingly aware of the conspicuous communist graffiti scattered throughout Naples, Milan and Rome. Coupled with the political undercurrents of Post World War II Italy, Warhol drew inspiration from this radical graffiti for his new series Hammer and Sickles. Warhol chose the emblematic hammer and sickle as it remained a significant symbol of fear and anxiety at an uncertain political time. Warhol painted his Hammer and Sickles, each as a traditional still life, using common household objects. This ironic use of everyday materials to create the communistic images of the elite both weakened and re-contextualized this propagandized imagery.

A fully-illustrated catalog with a text by noted curator Kathy Grayson is being published on the occasion of the exhibition.

Books and DVDs related to artists in this show

Location   Gallery Perry Rubenstein Gallery Address 534 W 24th St New York (Chelsea) NY, 10011 United States Phone 212-627-8000 Fax 212-627-6336 Hours Tue-Sat 10-6 (Summer hours: Mon-Fri 10-6)

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