CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/4/2015

Tools: Extending Our Reach

In the Cooper-Hewitt's wonderful new Irma Boom-designed exhibition catalog/design resource, co-organizer Matilda McQuaid writes, "In the July 1955 issue of Fortune magazine, the American photographer Walker Evans celebrated iconic hand tools in a photograph essay, Beauties of the Common Tool. Referring to the hardware store as an 'offbeat museum show,' Evans praised the 'undesigned' forms of classic tools and chided the 'design-happy manufacturers' who dared to change the least detail. Tin snips, a bricklayer's trowel, chain-nose pliers and a crate opener were, in Evans' eyes, standards of 'elegance, candor and purity.' Ultimately, what Evans valued was the design, the construction that resulted from the maker's understanding of function, efficiency of form and material." Featured photograph is Evans' "T" Bevel.