DALLAS, TX.- For generations of residents across Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, a trip to Hechinger’s hardware store was a ritual as familiar as the neighborhoods it served — a place where paint cans, power tools and bins of nails promised possibility. That sense of invention and imagination now finds its fullest artistic expression as Heritage Auctions presents Tools at Play: The Hechinger Collection, a Modern & Contemporary Art Showcase Auction taking place Jan. 28, 2026.

Comprising more than 340 works drawn from the celebrated Hechinger Collection, the auction represents a rare opportunity to acquire works from one of the more conceptually unified and culturally resonant collections of 20th-century art assembled in the United States. Proceeds will support the global exhibitions and educational programs of International Arts & Artists (IA&A), the nonprofit arts service organization that has managed the collection since 2003. This sale unites art, philanthropy and regional history in a way few auctions do.

The Hechinger Collection was formed over decades by John Hechinger, Sr., the hardware-industry pioneer who transformed his family’s Washington-based business, founded in 1911, into a beloved Mid-Atlantic institution and in the process helped shape the modern home-improvement store. When Hechinger relocated his company’s headquarters to Landover, Maryland in 1978, he found the building efficient but uninspiring. His response was characteristically inventive: He began collecting art that reflected the very tools and materials that animated his business and the lives of his employees.

“It struck me that the endless repetition of corridors and cubicles was boring and seemed to rebuke the fantasies that a hardware store inspires,” Hechinger once said. “For anyone whose passion is to work with his or her hands, a good hardware store is a spur to the imagination.”

That belief — that tools are not merely functional objects but extensions of creativity, labor and identity — became the intellectual foundation of the collection. Working closely with curator Sarah Tanguy, Hechinger assembled nearly 400 works spanning paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs and objects, primarily from the post-World War II era, by artists who transformed utilitarian forms into works of wit, beauty and profound insight.

“What makes the Hechinger Collection so compelling is that its focus never limits it,” says Taylor Curry, Heritage’s Director of Modern & Contemporary Art, New York. “John Hechinger followed a single idea — tools as subject and symbol — and discovered an extraordinary diversity of artistic voices. The result is a collection that’s playful, rigorous, deeply human and far broader than its premise might suggest.”

Indeed, Tools at Play ranges from iconic figures of postwar art to unexpected cult favorites, revealing how a shared subject can yield vastly different artistic languages. The auction is led by Arman’s monumental School of Fish II (1982), an Accumulation wall relief composed of vice grips that transforms industrial hardware into a rhythmic, aquatic abstraction. The work stands as a quintessential expression of Nouveau Réalisme and the philosophical lineage that stretches back to Marcel Duchamp’s readymades.

Among the many highlights are Wayne Thiebaud’s Paint Cans (1990), a lithograph suffused with nostalgia and formal precision; Jim Dine’s Atheism (1986), emblematic of the artist’s lifelong engagement with tools as autobiographical symbols; and several works by Jacob Lawrence, including The Builders (1974), which connects construction and community through Lawrence’s unmistakable visual language. Claes Oldenburg’s Sketch for a Three-way Plug (1972) brings humor and scale into play, while Richard Estes’ Nass Linoleum (1972) reveals the seductive surfaces of industrial materials through hyperrealist precision.

Sculpture and assemblage further expand the collection’s reach, with works such as Melvin Edwards’ Kotoko (1994) and Anthony Caro’s Writing Piece “Spick” (1978) underscoring the physicality and expressive power of wood and steel. The auction also embraces surprise, featuring works by artists such as Ron English and Lucas Samaras, whose inclusion speaks to the collection’s openness and sense of play.

Photography plays a crucial role as well, anchored by Berenice Abbott’s Hardware Store (1938), a gelatin silver print that captures the quiet dignity and visual order of a neighborhood shop. Abbott’s work provides an early, documentary counterpoint to the Pop and Conceptual explorations.

The auction’s catalog cover lot, Andrey Chezhin’s untitled work from The Kharmasiada Series (1995), exemplifies the collection’s international and conceptual breadth. The Russian artist’s haunting imagery adds a provocative psychological dimension to a collection often associated with physical tools and tangible materials.

As Nick Dawes, Heritage’s Senior Vice President of Special Collections, says, “Delve into Hechinger’s unique toolbox and you discover you are not looking at everyday objects, but works chosen with rigor and conviction by one of the most thoughtful collectors of his time. Hechinger understood, instinctively, that an ordinary object can be elevated to the dignity of art by the vision of the artist.”

In 2003, John Hechinger, Sr. donated the collection to International Arts & Artists, to serve as a unique resource for arts education and cultural exchange through traveling exhibitions. Under IA&A’s management, the collection has been seen in 67 exhibition presentations nationwide through acclaimed traveling exhibitions such as Tools as Art, Tools in Motion, ReTooled and Making Your Mark. Selections have also been displayed at IA&A at Hillyer and throughout the organization’s Washington, D.C., offices.

IA&A CEO Greg Houston says, “It has been a privilege to share this collection with the public for more than 20 years. But art is meant to be lived with. We are excited for these works to be seen and appreciated by new collectors and patrons of collecting museums and organizations, placing them in homes and institutions where they can continue to spark the imagination, just as John Hechinger intended.”

As Curry notes, “There’s a real emotional resonance here, especially for those who grew up with Hechinger stores as part of daily life. This is art that honors work, imagination and community, and by participating in the auction, collectors are helping expand IA&A’s 30-year mandate that provides artists and museums with vital access to global audiences and resources.”

Tools at Play: The Hechinger Collection will be offered Jan. 28 at Heritage Auctions, with proceeds benefiting International Arts & Artists, ensuring that a collection born from the humble poetry of tools continues to build something lasting.