AMASSED OVER DECADES BY A HARDWARE MOGUL, THE TROVE INCLUDES WORKS BY JIM DINE, JACOB LAWRENCE, MARK KOSTABI, AND MORE
By Nick Dawes | January 6, 2026
As Senior Vice President of Special Collections at Heritage Auctions, I meet a lot of people with “stuff.” The first question I ask them is often a provocative but simple one: “Why?” Responses run a spectrum. Some combine frivolity with philosophy, others with mundane reasoning, and many with a quizzical gaze, emphasizing the question’s impact and novelty.
I never had the pleasure of meeting John Hechinger Sr. but suspect his answer would have included frivolity, philosophy, and a generous dose of that rare passion only seasoned collectors can summon and make sense of. A World War II veteran, hardware store owner, and philanthropist, Hechinger spent decades assembling one of the most captivating and intellectually grounded examinations of tools as artistic subject matter. On January 28, Hechinger’s singular fascination will be on full display when Heritage presents Tools at Play, a dedicated auction of the hardware magnate’s complete art collection.
Wayne Thiebaud ‘Paint Cans,’ 1990. Lithograph in colors on Arches paper. 38-3/4 x 29-1/4 inches (98.4 x 74.3 cm) (sheet). Ed. 54/100.
Mark Kostabi ‘Power Tool Baby,’ 1988-89. Oil on canvas. 54 x 48 inches (137.2 x 121.9 cm).
Hechinger’s lifetime stewardship of the Hechinger Company, founded in Washington, D.C., by his father in 1911, was an obvious source of visual stimulation and opportunity. In 1978, he moved the company to a new corporate headquarters in Landover, Maryland, and found the building rather sterile. Hechinger already owned Tool Box by Jim Dine, a suite of 10 silkscreen prints that blend images of tools with references to popular culture and moments from Dine’s personal life. He displayed the suite in his office and quickly noticed how much his colleagues responded to it. He realized the thematic resonance with his business and set out collecting art that highlighted the company’s very livelihood.
Berenice Abbott ‘Hardware Store,’ 1938. Gelatin silver print. 10-1/2 x 13-1/4 inches
(26.7 x 33.7 cm) (image/sheet).
Jacob Lawrence ‘Carpenters,’ 1977. Lithograph in colors on paper. 19-1/8 x 23-1/8 inches (48.6 x 58.7 cm) (sight). Ed. 130/300.
We all encounter tools, of course, but how many of us see them as works of art? In the foreword to a museum exhibition catalog for Tools as Art, a traveling exhibition based on the Hechinger Collection, the artist Arman described Hechinger’s eye as “the culmination of a relationship between man and his tools defined and enhanced by artistic interpretations.” Tools as Art toured more than a dozen U.S. museums during the 2000s, with the Hechinger Collection being documented in the exhibition catalog by Arman and curator Sarah Tanguy, as well as in a comprehensive hardbound book by the veteran journalist Pete Hamill, whose career was dedicated to making the ordinary extraordinary.
Arman ‘Untitled,’ 1979. Acrylic on plexiglass. 11-3/4 x 11-3/4 x 2 inches (29.8 x 29.8 x 5.1 cm) (overall). A.P.
Marcel Duchamp explored this concept as early as 1915 in his “readymade” objects, including the iconic snow shovel hanging in The Museum of Modern Art. “Anything is art if an artist says it is,” he liked to say, and Hechinger clearly agreed, as did many of the artists he favored and patronized. The Franco-American artist Arman (Armand Pierre Fernandez, 1928-2005) met Duchamp in New York in 1961, and the two bonded over a shared passion for the game of chess. Heritage’s Tools at Play features four of Arman’s “Accumulation” works of Nouveau Réalisme, including my favorite, an untitled 1979 work composed of tubes of paint. I think Duchamp would have loved it.
Walker Evans ‘Wrench,’ 1955. Gelatin silver print. 10 x 8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm) (image/sheet).
Jim Dine ‘Big Red Wrench in a Landscape’ from ‘Homage to Picasso (Hommage à Picasso),’ 1973. Lithograph in colors on Arches paper. 30 x 22-1/4 inches (76.2 x 56.5 cm) (sheet). P/P 2/15.
The American social realist photographer Walker Evans may have crossed paths with Duchamp during his time in Paris and New York before WWII, and certainly shared his vision, as did Jim Dine, another Hechinger favorite who grew up in a family hardware store a generation later. I am not convinced Richard Estes and the hyper-realists featured in this auction – all exceptionally painterly in their work – shared this vision or a more superficial love of the “form follows function” appeal of great tools (are we still making those?), well evidenced by the Hechinger Collection’s “raw” tools like this 1920s mechanized hacksaw.
Delta Specialty Company ‘Delta Saw,’ 1929. Mechanized hacksaw. 11 x 14 x 9 inches (27.9 x 35.6 x 22.9 cm) (overall).
Andrey Chezhin ‘Untitled’ from ‘The Kharmasiada Series,’ 1995. Toned gelatin silver print. 14-5/8 x 11 inches (37.1 x 27.9 cm) (sight).
Tools at Play features more than 350 works, all offered at no reserve and many opening at $100. The spectrum contains several outstanding works of contemporary art, notably the work of contemporary masters Jacob Lawrence and Mark Kostabi, as well as masterworks of photography, including none more provocative than this powerful work by the Russian Conceptualist Andrey Chezhin.
Delve into Hechinger’s unique toolbox and you will discover you are not looking at everyday objects but works chosen with rigor and conviction by one of the most important collectors of our time. In the words of Duchamp, “An ordinary object can be elevated to the dignity of a work by the mere choice of an artist.” John Hechinger chose his art and artists exceedingly well.
