Hammer & Sickle paintings

The Hammer & Sickle paintings acquire their significance in the diary not through a description of their appearance, but through their scarcity and the dispute over who could claim one. At Christmas, Andy Warhol offered Bob Colacello any painting he wanted; Bob chose a Hammer & Sickle, and Warhol’s refusal turned the gift into a flashpoint in their already strained working relationship.

The Painting as a Scarce Gift

Before Bob left for the holidays, Warhol told him he could have any painting he wanted for Christmas. Bob chose a Hammer & Sickle. Warhol had only two, however, and declined, asking for anything but that one. The account gives no further description of the paintings, but the detail that only two were available makes the refusal concrete: this was not an unlimited offer, and Bob had selected a work Warhol was reluctant to give away.

A Dispute Becomes an Explanation

On January 6, 1983, Warhol recorded that Bob had quit, then connected the departure to the rejected gift. He also described a broader disagreement: Bob wanted a share of Interview, while Warhol said he had offered him a percentage of profits once the magazine made money, which it had not. The painting thus became one object within a dispute about recognition, compensation, and the value of Bob’s contribution—not simply a Christmas present that had gone astray.

The conflict continued to circulate after Bob’s departure. At lunch on February 17, Warhol told Lady Sharon and Jill Fuller what he called the real story of Bob quitting: that he had refused to give him the Hammer & Sickle painting. When Warhol later told Fred Hughes that he had disclosed the story, Fred worried that it would reach the papers. The object’s role therefore shifted from the private terms of a gift to a compact, repeatable account of the rupture.

The Limits of the Painting’s Causal Role

The diary also records a reason not to treat the refused painting as the whole explanation. On February 13, Warhol relayed Nelson Lyon’s account that Paul Morrissey had spoken with Bob the previous summer on a Greek island, where Bob had said he was thinking of quitting. Warhol made light of Bob’s name change and his own difficulty spelling it, but the reported conversation places Bob’s thoughts of leaving before the Christmas disagreement. The Hammer & Sickle painting is therefore a vivid point of conflict and, in Warhol’s later telling, the reason Bob quit; the diary’s earlier account leaves open how much it actually caused.