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Oct 11Liked by Jennifer Braun

I saw the Hammer and Sickle paintings in 1976. They struck me as expressions of Warhol's self-isolating sensibility. They mocked Marxist critics by turning their sacred symbol into a soup can, while mocking the capitalist collectors by compelling them to hang the sacred symbol of Marxism over their sofas. Tim Rollins, who was a fellow student at the time (the paintings were shown as SVA) grabbed me by the collar and demanded I tell him what I thought of them. I told him I thought Warhol was saying he was not with anyone. He was distancing himself from any opinion one way or the other. The sensual images of men (from what I can see in the installation shots) express the same odd distancing by the repetition. It undermines the intimacy implied.

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That's an interesting take, thank you for sharing!

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