In a 1954 letter to his boss Hedley Donavan at Fortune magazine Walker Evans used the following language to "sell" a certain portfolio idea.
THE BEAUTIES OF THE COMMON TOOL. A dozen or so large, sensuous black-and-white picture studies of hand tools bought in ordinary hardware stores. Sensuous is the word. Extremely careful though simple studio photographs. The photographer will assume that a certain monkey-wrench is a museum piece. The camera will drool over this and a countersink and a plumb blob. Abstract volupte. All will be strictly pure design: that is to say, no chiqued-up. Raymond Lowey or Dreyfus commercial corruptions will be allowed it this show.
In penciled notes he went further.
Time and again a man will stand before a hardware store window eyeing the tools arrayed behind the glass; his mouth will water; he will go in and hand over $2.65 for a perfectly beautiful special kind of polished wrench; and probably he will never, never use it for anything.
Finally, In an accompanying text for the 1955 Fortune magazine photo spread he waxed on even further.
...fine naked impression of the heft and bite in the crescent wrench...
...these basic, common tools stand for elegance, candor, and purity... Among the low-priced, factory-produced goods, none is so appealing to the sense as the ordinary hand tool. Hence, the hardware store is a kind of offbeat museum show for the man who responds to good, clear 'undesigned' forms... Aside from their functions—though they are exclusively wedded to function—each of these tools lures the eye to follow its curves and angles, and invites the hand to test its balance.
With Evans in mind I began collecting wrenches and researching tool collecting organizations. I soon discovered that foremost among those organizations was the Early American Industries Association. In the classifieds department of their quarterly journaI "Chronicle" I found a small ad for the Missouri Valley Wrench Club. And it was in a MVWC news letter that I discovered Donald H. Snyder's book My First 100 Wrenches. Unfortunately it was out of print. However, I was able to order from Mr. Snyder his sequel book, My Second 1000 Wrenches, which has proved invaluable in classifying and identifying most of the pieces in my collection.
I have taken for the title of my current show at Abaton Garage gallery, Mr. Snyder's term "My First 1000 Wrenches." The piece itself however is "untitled" which is my general practice in art production and presentation. The installation consists of approximately one thousand wrenches stored in eight open-lidded (as found), painted metal tool boxes which I have placed in a two across, four deep grid configuration on the gallery floor.
Mr. Snyder noted in "My Second 1000 Wrenches" that he was working on a third book.
--Bill Schwarz / October, 2004
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I have taken for the title of my current show at Abaton Garage gallery, Mr. Snyder's term "My First 1000 Wrenches." The piece itself however is "untitled" which is my general practice in art production and presentation. The installation consists of approximately one thousand wrenches stored in eight open-lidded (as found), painted metal tool boxes which I have placed in a two across, four deep grid configuration on the gallery floor.
Mr. Snyder noted in "My Second 1000 Wrenches" that he was working on a third book.
--Bill Schwarz / October, 2004
- bill 11-02-2004 10:49 pm