Tool Box

Pop artist Jim Dine is best known for his decades-long fascinations with universal symbols and everyday objects including hearts, bathrobes, and tools. From a young age, Dine spent time playing in his grandfather’s hardware store in Cincinnati—a formative experience that inspired him to depict tools repeatedly throughout his career. According to Dine, wrenches, wire cutters, and scissors fill him with nostalgia, providing a “link with our past, the human past, the hand,” he once said. For over 50 years, Dine has depicted tools in nearly every artistic medium, including sculpture, photography, and print.