Kevin Deck – International Arts & Artists

Hechinger died on his 84th birthday on January 18, 2004. Today, we’re honoring him on what would have been his 100th birthday.

A fifth-generation Washingtonian, Hechinger attended Lehigh and Yale Universities and served in the United States Air Force in the China-Burma theater in World War II. Over the years, Hechinger actively participated in numerous civic and philanthropic organizations, including the United Way Fund, the Washington Urban League, the Boys Club of Washington, and Columbia Hospital for Women. A strong civil rights advocate, he created a diverse workforce and was appointed in 1967 by President Lyndon Johnson as chairman of the first D.C. City Council. He was also passionately involved in the handgun control movement and Business Executives for National Security.

Until his retirement in 1996, John Hechinger Sr. headed the Hechinger Company, a hardware and building materials chain established by his father in 1911. When the company moved to new headquarters in 1978, he found the corridors and workplaces efficient but sterile: “The building seemed to rebuke the fantasies that a hardware store inspires. For anyone whose passion is to work with his or her hands, a good hardware store is a spur to the imagination and a source of irresistible delights.”

Hechinger began acquiring works for his collection after displaying Jim Dine’s Tool Box—ten screenprints combining tools with images from pop culture—in his office and noticing the positive impact the art had on his employees.

"I felt that if I could show my associates how so many artists had celebrated the handsaw or the hammer or the paintbrush, they would be aware of the intrinsic beauty of the simple objects that they handled by the tens of thousands. They were not only the focus of their workdays, but our company’s very lifeblood. I hoped that the art would cause them to feel that what they were doing was of greater value."

As Hechinger discovered early on, the collection’s narrow focus strikes a rich and diverse vein in contemporary art, with tool-inspired paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and folk art, primarily from the post-World War II era. Spanning a wide range of styles and themes, the collection honors common tools, where form and function are inextricably linked. The exhibition showcases emerging talent as well as renowned artists and photographers such as Berenice Abbott, Arman, Jim Dine, Walker Evans, Jacob Lawrence, Fernand Léger, Claes Oldenburg, and Wayne Thiebaud, among others. All share a deep affinity for everyday things, and it is this quality that makes their work so evocative.

“In a sense, once a tool is in hand, it disappears. We care only about how well it functions, not its form. In the hands of an artist, however, the form of a tool is a vehicle for communicating an infinite range of ideas and associations, from purely visual analogies to complex human feelings.”

Hechinger was particularly interested in art that was immediately understandable and engaging to all audiences, hence making this unusually-themed collection extremely popular everywhere it has been shown. It is filled with art that provides an accessible “point of entry” for those unfamiliar with contemporary art to begin to understand the range of ideas, creativity, forms, and materials that comprise the art of today.

Artist and architect Kevin Deck fondly remembers Hechinger as a “gracious, gentle, lover of art that was kind enough to encourage a young artist. I was only in Mr. Hechinger’s presence once, when I dropped off [my print] Wiskers at his home. I was a 19-year-old kid and was a bit nervous and in awe but remember his gracious manner, his kind and encouraging words about my art and talent. My mother Billie was with me and reminded me that he compared Wiskers to the work of Jim Dine. She also recalled him saying that he had a special place picked out in his home to display my work.”

In seeking a posthumous home for his collection, Hechinger chose IA&A because of the organization’s commitment to preserving the integrity of and public access to the collection. Since IA&A took ownership of the collection, works from the collection have been exhibited in 65 museums and cultural institutions throughout the US over the past 19 years. Nationally touring exhibitions organized by IA&A include Tools as Art (2001-2008), Tools in Motion (2005-2013), ReTooled (2014-2020), and Making Your Mark (2021-2023). Selections from the collection are also on view in IA&A’s offices and have been exhibited at IA&A at Hillyer (2007, 2008, 2010, and 2018).

Having seen how easily the public relates to the collection and its theme, we are grateful to John Hechinger Sr., not only for the collection and for demystifying contemporary art, but also for helping art return to a place where it can be appreciated by all.

"In Washington, I think, the name Claes Oldenburg generally brings to mind his large-scale public art installations, such as his Typewriter Eraser (made in collaboration with Coosje van Bruggen) that our city safeguards in our National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden. The artist's fascination with everyday objects brought to life in this scaled-down size—a measly 2.5 feet in height when compared to his sculptures, which can be more than 20 feet tall—makes this lithograph particularly intimate and exciting. When the lithograph was originally created in 1965, Oldenburg couldn't have imagined the many ways that our electrical outlets would come to control our lives. So his melting yet enticing version of the plug, drawn with prongs that look almost like popsicle sticks, makes me think of our contemporary thirst for more and more ways to split our energy."

—Teddy Rodger, Public Engagement and Events Manager

Claes Oldenburg, Three-Way Plug, 1965, offset lithograph with airbrush, 32 × 24 ½ inches.

"I first encountered Shimomura's work in 2015 and was very excited to find one of his earlier works in the Hechinger Collection. I love his playful use of traditional and pop culture references that reflect his experiences as a third-generation Japanese-American. When you’re doing laundry, the rinse cycle is arguably the most important step because it washes away the detergent and dirt. There’s a lot happening in Rinse Cycle, but the dripping black paint and telling glances of the women make you wonder what 'dirt' is being washed.”

—Christie, Marketing and Communications Manager

Roger Shimomura, Rinse Cycle, 1988, acrylic on canvas, 60 × 24 inches.

“I'm intrigued by the artist's use of surrealism—particularly the nails in the porcelain vase—to portray the fragility of the earth. I ponder the image through an environmental lens and the current fragile situation that we're in. The looming hammers seem disproportionately large tools to the task they accomplished. Strong art sparks questions and The Reconstruction has got me thinking. Was the artist interested in where humans will go next if we discover reachable, habitable planets before it's too late?”

—Daniel, Development Associate

Ron English, The Reconstruction, 1992, oil on canvas, 48 × 34 inches.