Retooled: Highlights from the Hechinger Collection

Retooled brings life to the unexpected subject of tools by profiling 28 visionary artists from the Hechinger Collection including Arman, Anthony Caro, Richard Estes, Howard Finster, Red Grooms, Jacob Lawrence, Fernand Léger, Roger Shimomura, and H.C. Westermann; photographers Berenice Abbott, William Eggleston, and Walker Evans; and pop artists Jim Dine, Claes Oldenburg, and James Rosenquist. Featuring more than 40 imaginative paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and photographs, the exhibition consists of four sections that dynamically frame the themes of this collection into accessible categories: Objects of Beauty; Material Illusions; Instruments of Satire; and Tools: An Extension of Self. Some of the artists represent tools with reverence to accentuate their purity of design. Others transform and distort tools to highlight their tragic obsolescence in a technological age. Nevertheless, all of the works remind us that tools embody the can-do spirit that defines America and the quest to improve our quality of life.